Kaiju Apocalypse Book One: The Storm
by Halomek
Summary: In an attempt to create a controllable kaiju weapon, the M Watch organization develops a manmade kaiju based upon the cells of King Ghidorah. Arashi, as he is soon dubbed, may become the key in the upcoming war for Earth.
1. Intro

**-Disclaimer-**

Kaiju Apocalypse (KA) is a work of pure fanfiction and is not recognized or sanctioned by the creators of Toho in any way or form. However, please ask for my permission if you want to use any of the characters I created for this story (most notably Arashi, Saeko, and Max).

Also, since I know I'm going to get questions about it if I don't mention it now...

KA is a hybrid of the Heisei and Showa eras. The monsters are Heisei sized, but for the most part the technology and events of the Showa series are in place (a much underused time in fanfics in my opinion). A few elements of the Kong mythos are also thrown in to round things out. It might seem complicated, but I've taken pains to see that it all fits.

Now, on with the show…


	2. Prologue: The Flicker Before the Fire

**Kaiju Apocalypse: The Storm**

By: Micah Kenworthy (Halomek)

**Prologue: **The Flicker Before the Fire

---The Arrival---

Earth.

For being such a small insignificant speck, floating in the black ocean of space, the planet had managed to garner quite a reputation for itself. The only companion to keep it company in the emptiness was a gray dustball which was simply known as the Moon. From the depths of space the oft troubled and turbulent planet looked peaceful to the naked eye.

However, not all eyes saw with the same vision. There was one who observed the planet in front of him with little more than disgust. The planet seemed to him contemptuous and openly defiant of the order that ruled the galaxy: his order. For too long had this small planet managed to defy the odds and avert its own destruction. The time had come to personally reduce it to a charred and lifeless hulk.

The bearer of these dark thoughts inhabited a powerful eight foot tall body. With skin colored an angry red and muscles forming a robust frame, there was no doubt that it was the body of a warrior. Obsidian claws tipped the end of each finger and four horns of an equally black color crested the head. A set of yellow glowing eyes were set deep within the skull of the creature, which gave the face a permanent expression of anger. A fanged, mammalian maw served as a mouth. Covering the body was black body armor that was visibly made from the bones of others of his race.

This was the body of Lord Centaurus, ruler of the Demion race and easily one of the most powerful men in the entire galaxy. For the Demions ruled all who fell under their gaze, causing other races to submit or be destroyed.

Few could stand alone against the power of the Demion Empire, which made the problem of Earth all the more annoying for Centaurus. The efforts of his minions had so far failed to bring the Earth in line and so now he was forced to deal with the situation personally. Such an action meant only one fate for the inhabitants: death.

However, he knew that the people of this seemingly unremarkable planet were not to be underestimated. That had been the hubris that had led to the downfall of previous Demion lords. Centaurus had personally eliminated the lord before him for failing to realize the truth about Earth. The guardians of this planet, which the Humans had taken to calling _kaiju_, were numerous and abundant. Whether created from nature, science, or a bastard marriage between the two, it presented a real problem to his invasion forces.

Centaurus's chief scientist, Vulpecula, had once reported to him that this Earth, this seemingly insignificant dot in the universe, held within it untold energy and mystical power. It probably served as good an explanation as any as to why Earth had more kaiju living upon it than any planet the Demions had ever encountered.

These kaiju would need to be eliminated before any massive invasion could be implemented. Fortunately, Centaurus had a plan to erase these obstacles from his sight…

As if on cue, a burst of flame announced the arrival of one of the many messengers Centaurus had at his command. This Demion was about a head smaller than Centaurus and had skin as black as the night. Red stripes ran across his exposed skin, making him appear to otherwise be invisible to in the darkened room. Other than the skin coloration, his physical characteristics matched that of Centaurus.

This new arrival immediately bowed before Centaurus, yellow eyes staring only at the floor, for to meet the eyes of his master would have meant an instant death to him. He dared not speak until Centaurus addressed him, for that sort of disrespect too would have meant death.

"Sirius," Centaurus said, growling the subordinate's name. "Report."

"My missions were a success, my Lord," Sirius hissed, still prostrate before Centaurus. "I have made contact with the kaiju known as Megalon without being detected by the Seatopians. He has agreed to aid our plans providing one condition."

"And what is this condition?" Centaurus asked with something akin to boredom. He didn't particularly need the aid of Megalon, but any ally he could gather to help fight other kaiju would be a help. It was believed that Megalon was now secretly fed up with his Seatopian masters after his last run in with the troublesome kaiju known as Godzilla.

Sirius would have laughed if he didn't fear that it would be seen as disrespect in the eyes of Centaurus. "He wishes to have his body modified so that he can travel through space."

"Granted," the other said, amused. Such a simple reward for the difficult task Megalon would be given. "Tell him he will get his desire after he aids us in the finding of our herald."

"Of course, my Lord."

"What of your other mission?"

"The Meganura egg has been successfully hidden away on the landmass known as Africa, deep in the jungles," Sirius reported. "The spider Kumonga and the last of the Earth's Kamacuras are under our control and are even now being transported to Africa to protect the egg."

"Well done," Centaurus said in rare compliment. The Demion master held out a clawed hand before a small spout of flame announced the arrival of a small container in his hand. "Rise and receive your next mission, Sirius. Take this container in my hand."

Sirius got to his feet, still not looking upon Centaurus, as he took the container without question.

"Inside is the spore of the Hedorah," Centaurus informed him. "They may have defeated the last Hedorah we sent to this pitiful planet, but I have different goals for the creature than all out destruction this time. See to it that this Hedorah grows to full maturity, but keep its existence secret from the Humans for now. I will tell you when and where I want it to strike. You may leave to accomplish this now."

"By your desire, my Lord," Sirius said in farewell before disappearing in another burst of flame.

Centaurus looked at the Earth again, and this time felt a spell of malevolent laughter take him. The beginning of the end would be slow, but like the hellfire of a thousand religions, his actions would rise in intensity and trap the pathetic inhabitants before they even realized they were being burned alive. His subtle machinations were being enacted all over the globe, slowly building towards the unifying point of a Demion victory.

Even now, three space crystals; one for King Ghidorah, one for Gigan, and one for Orga; were being released and were already headed for the Earth. The attacks would be partly distraction and partly to test how fast the Earth's kaiju and the humans responded to an attack. If all went well, this initial strike would help to soften their defenses as well.

The demise of this eyesore would only be a matter of time now, for the venomed hand of Centaurus knew no bounds. All that was really required to make his victory complete was his herald, the one who would lead the way for last invasion force the Earth would ever know…

---The Demon of Dreams---

Sean Varnbel was haunted by a reoccurring dream. It was the same every time he fell asleep, indeed, it was getting to be that he saw it every time he closed his eyes. The mere image of it of was starting to drive him insane even though he couldn't recognize his failing mental health.

In his dream he was alone in a strange jungle. Then a giant ogre-like being would emerge from the trees. The monstrosity had knobby green skin and a pugish, vaguely dog-like face. On top of its head rested a short row of long horns. This monster towered over him and was at least as large as Godzilla. When he spoke, it was with a strange caterwaul like wail, and yet somehow Sean could understand him perfectly.

Every time this demon appeared, Sean always asked the same question. "Who are you?"

And he would always get the same response. _"I am Gabara,"_ it would roar to him. _"I have chosen you, Sean Varnbel, to be the next vessel of my return."_

From there the conversation would always stay the same. "I will not serve a monster!" Sean would say defiantly.

At this, Gabara would cackle. _"You have no choice, Sean. You will serve me, for I will haunt your existence until the day you die. There is nothing you can do but become my willing servant."_

And Sean had tried everything to keep himself from dreaming of Gabara, but no amount of medicine or mental training seemed to have an affect on keeping Gabara out of his head. The demon still managed to break through without any apparent effort to taunt and torment him.

Gabara would always start off with this sequence before the dreams branched off into different scenarios. In most of them, Gabara would torture Sean through a variety of methods. Even though Sean knew he was dreaming, it was so real that he could swear that he actually felt the pain.

Finally after months of nonstop abuse from Gabara, Sean had finally given in, unable to bear the thought of resisting Gabara any longer and too scared to take his own life.

Gabara seemed to know everything Sean did, and he taught Sean how he could use his knowledge to bring the giant ogre into his world. Unfortunately for Sean, such a project required a lot of funding.

Sean had thought he had found the means through M-Watch's Kaiju Defender Project, but his idea of summoning a monster instead of creating one was deemed too farfetched to work by the higher ups in command. Instead they had gone with Professor Chen's somewhat uninspired idea of create a copy of an existing monster.

It no longer mattered now though… Sean had found some private investors, people who believed in his vision, or rather, Gabara's vision.

Soon… soon Gabara would be manifest and he would crush those who had interfered with his summoning.

Little did the unfortunate man realize that his mind was no longer his own. Gabara merely allowed him to believe he still had freewill for his own amusement. Varnbel's desire for revenge was now only an extension of Gabara's…

---Man Versus Monsters---

In a darkened room a single occupant sat, bathed in the diffuse glow of a dozen different television screens. Each screen showed a scene of utter destruction and of this destruction one would think that the damage had been caused by an earthquake or a hurricane if not for one familiar theme dominating every screen. All of the carnage and ruin was caused in some way by a giant monster, or _kaiju_, as the Japanese called them.

Some of these kaiju were pure malevolence and hatred, seeking only to eradicate Earth of all life. King Ghidorah was the monster most people thought of when they talked of the scourge of humanity, but others were brought in as well: Megalon, Gigan, or the latest to join the pantheon: Orga…

And then there were the kaiju that were on the other side of the spectrum, the so-called 'good' monsters that showed up to fight the evil monsters. If anything, they were even more of a nuisance than the bad kaiju, able to cause all of the damage but take none of the blame. Godzilla was the worst of these kaiju, even though they said he was now fighting for humanity, his early rampages could not be forgotten. Godzilla still had the deaths of millions on his oversized claws.

Even Mothra, the one most pointed to as the friend of man, had a fair share of human death that could be attributed to her. Just having her flying over a populated area meant trouble, let alone fighting in one. Her caterpillar form was even worse, trampling all who couldn't get out of her way.

The repeated battles between these titans were slowly, but surely, tearing civilization apart. However, the thing that really made the single occupant watching these past battles angry was the knowledge that, if not for the likes of Godzilla and Earth's other kaiju defenders, humanity would probably already be gone. It didn't sit right with him that humans were now basically at the mercy of a handful of giant animals.

So he sat there and watched the screens carefully, taking notes on probable weaknesses… They all had to have one…

Suddenly his cell phone started ringing. With an annoyed grunt, he picked it up and spoke. "Adams, here."

"We've got another job for you, Max," the gruff voice of General Douglas Nassel answered. "A 20-foot tarantula is rampaging near an oil-refinery in Texas. We need your expertise."

"I'm already on my way out," Max assured his commanding officer before hanging up and regretfully turning off the monitors. It vexed him so much that the only monsters humanity seemed fit to deal with were of the smaller variety.

Even now there were giant kaiju attacks taking place all over the world and the militaries of those countries were basically helpless to stop them. They were putting in their faith that Godzilla or another equally 'benign' monster would come and save them.

Max vowed that the days of trusting humanity's fate to kaiju would soon come to an end. The only good kaiju was a dead kaiju.

---The Clash of Titans---

There he was, one of the most fearsome monsters to ever ravage Earth, the aptly named King Ghidorah. The golden demon was known throughout the universe as a destroyer of worlds, the Monster Zero, and the King of Terror. Every title fit and he carried out his duties with evident pleasure and malice.

He was a massive three headed dragon covered in golden scales. A pair of enormous wings framed the monster and allowed him to hover above the ground, kicking up massive gusts of wind as they flapped. Ghidorah's three heads studied his rival as his sinuous necks moved to consider how best to attack his unexpected opponent.

This enemy was unlike any he had faced before.

It was a mirror image of himself.

This second Ghidorah remained standing on the ground, watching the first Ghidorah intently and calling out a challenge with a distinct chitter.

This was the first time that the two Ghidorahs had taken a break in their battle since they had first started fighting. General Douglas Nassel watched the battle between the two 150 meter monsters intently, if this worked they would not have to rely on Godzilla and the other kaiju to save the Earth. This was especially poignant to him now as Godzilla was busy battling Gigan faraway in Japan. The other monsters on Monster Island had so far not moved to help and the only kaiju that seemed to make the U.S. his second home, King Kong, was even now in the middle of a battle with the newcomer, Orga, on the other side of the country in New York.

Kaiju attacks were inexplicably becoming more and more frequent as of late and Earth's defenders were starting to become hard pressed to save this planet. It was a dire situation, especially given the taxing demands on the world's militaries to try and safeguard its citizens. There wasn't a country in the world that hadn't been hit by a monster attack by now, but by far, Japan and the U.S. were the two being hit the most by these assaults.

Off to Nassel's side, watching how well his creation was doing, stood Doctor Hikaru Chen. He had come from Japan, on his own volition, to help create a manmade kaiju that America could use at its beck and call to help protect its greater landmass. They had decided on creating a monster based on King Ghidorah, easily one of the strongest of the monsters. Godzilla had been passed up as being 'too unpredictable' to risk creating another. The kaiju's noted and frequent mutations could conceivably bypass the genetic programming that had been implanted into the new Ghidorah.

Since it was unknown exactly how Ghidorah was created, and they had no genetic material to work from, Chen devised his own method of creating the beast. Chen created three creatures he had called Dorats and then bombarded them with massive doses of radiation. Strangely enough, the Dorats fused together to from a doppelganger of the real King Ghidorah. However, unlike the evil space monster, this Ghidorah had been genetically engineered to protect the Earth and he carried no trace of evil since he had been developed entirely from scratch.

It was appropriate somehow that Dorat-Ghidorah's first battle would be against the real thing.

Nassel's top aide, Commander Tom Onder, ran up to him with a salute. "We've just received word from M-Watch, sir. Mothra and Rodan are flying over the Pacific to confront King Ghidorah!"

"They'll arrive too late," Chen assured Nassel as he overheard the information. "My Ghidorah will beat the real thing before those other monsters can arrive!"

"Nevertheless, any help we get will be appreciated," Nassel said thoughtfully. "Order Dorat-Ghidorah to drive the real one towards Rodan and Mothra's position. We'll catch that space monster in an ambush!"

With a nod, Chen went to the communicator that was used to talk with Dorat-Ghidorah. "Drive Ghidorah out to sea!" he commanded.

Dorat-Ghidorah immediately lifted off and fired a triple blast from his gravity beams as he passed by the real thing, striking the real Ghidorah in the back. Ghidorah cried out in anger and fired off a volley of his own, which just grazed the human-made monster as it soared out to sea. King Ghidorah, angry at seeing his enemy escaping, flew after him.

Dorat-Ghidorah didn't get far before King Ghidorah unleashed a powerful blast of his gravity beams. The searing energy ripped apart Dorat-Ghidorah's wings and Chen's creation, unable to support itself, fell into the bay with an enormous splash. King Ghidorah landed on top of the monster with a crushing swoop, pining the kaiju in the relatively shallow water.

Dorat-Ghidorah struggled to rise, crying in pain, but the space monster had his enemy pinned firmly to the ground. With a devastating lunge, Ghidorah's three heads snaked out to latch onto the middle neck of Dorat-Ghidorah. With one foot on the base of the neck, Ghidorah pulled up, bringing all of his monstrous force to bear. There was a bit of resistance at first, but quickly enough Dorat-Ghidorah's middle neck was torn off of his body. Ghidorah flung the extremity away into the depths of the ocean and concentrated on his foe, gauging if his enemy was dead yet.

The waters around Dorat-Ghidorah's body quickly turned red as blood spilled out of the stump in the middle. Ghidorah jumped back and watched for a moment as Dorat-Ghidorah feebly tried to rise. King Ghidorah let loose another gravity beam volley before kicking his enemy in the side and sending him flying.

Dorat-Ghidorah's body hit the water further out and flailed about as he promptly sunk under the waves.

Screeching in triumph, King Ghidorah turned his attention back towards the mainland. Nassel knew it was crazy, but he could've sworn that the beast was staring directly at the bunker he was in. Whatever Ghidorah's plans were, they were interrupted by the far off screech of Mothra which was closely followed by Rodan's distinctive deep-throated howl.

Ghidorah looked behind him at the noise before lifting off, reluctantly it seemed, and headed towards space once more.

Nassel watched him go before he turned to Chen. "Your monster failed, Doctor. King Ghidorah was too much for him and I want to know why. I thought he was a perfect copy."

Chen shut off Dorat-Ghidorah's communicator in disappointment. "I could create a facsimile, but I couldn't duplicate the real thing. King Ghidorah is a destroyer of worlds, he must have lifetimes of experience in combat. And the way Dorat-Ghidorah's gravity beams didn't seem to affect the real thing, while Ghidorah's tore into my creation… I see now that he was made of something much tougher than anything I could create in a lab from scratch."

"Are you saying that the kaiju project will not work?" Nassel asked.

"No, General," Chen corrected with a smile as his brilliant mind suddenly came up with another solution. "It's just going in a different direction. Have your men gather samples of the real Ghidorah's blood and flesh. My creation may not have been strong enough to kill King Ghidorah, but it did manage to injure him. With the real DNA of such a monster, I promise I will create a kaiju that can defeat King Ghidorah and any other monster that threatens the Earth."


	3. The Ties That Bind…

**Chapter One: **The Ties That Bind…

_M-Watch Kaiju Defender Lab, Arizona. One Week After Ghidorah's Attack._

"Remarkable," Hikaru Chen breathed as took his eyes off of the monitor and quickly scribbled some notes into his journal. "I was way off with the Dorats," he mumbled. "No wonder my version didn't last against the real thing."

"I told you."

Hikaru looked up from his work and spotted a teenage girl smiling knowingly at him. She shared the same Asiatic features as he did, mostly Japanese but with a few traces of the Chen family's roots in ancient China, however she definitely got her beauty from her late mother's side.

She was still in her late teens, almost an adult really, and it certainly showed. Her face was flawless, with deep brown eyes and black hair that was cut at the shoulder. She was wearing a white _ki_ held together with a black belt, but Hikaru knew that the girl tended to favor loose-fitting clothing anyway.

"Saeko?" he said, surprised. "How did you get past the guards?"

"I'm the daughter of the brilliant Professor Chen," she said with amusement. "With a little cajoling I can pretty much access any part of this facility."

Hikaru frowned as he adjusted his glasses. "You really shouldn't do that."

"Since when has that stopped me?"

"Good point," he sighed. "So why has my little girl decided to violate the rules - again - to see her father?"

"My martial arts class is over and I thought I'd see how you were doing," she said. "I haven't seen you since you left for California and I wanted to make sure you were still alive."

Saeko said that last with an edge of sarcasm and Hikaru knew he really should have chastised her about being disrespectful, but a wave of guilt stopped him. Because of his busy schedule he usually only saw his daughter maybe once or twice in any given week. Saeko was more than capable of taking care of herself, but it still ate at Chen that he couldn't spend more time with her.

Before he could manage to say anything, Saeko gestured to the screen that displayed the unique cell structure he had been taking notes on as she walked up next to him. "So, I assume these cells belong to the real King Ghidorah?"

"Yes," he answered, secretly glad for the change of subject.

Saeko's face lit up as she studied the screen. One thing she had definitely inherited from her father was an intense interest in all things kaiju. "You finally managed to grab some real cells, huh? During the confrontation in California?"

"This is way different than those Dorat-things you designed," she continued before he could answer. "What ever made you think that fusing those creatures into a single monster would be a match for the real Ghidorah?"

After the battle he had witnessed on California's coast, Hikaru found he had been wondering the same thing. "There was a theory going around that King Ghidorah couldn't possibly be a natural creation and that he was, at one time, three different creatures of the same species fused together; possibly by a supernova."

He leaned back in his chair. "It seemed like the most plausible explanation when I first started working on M-Watch's Kaiju Defender project. With that to guide me, I created the Dorats from scratch so that they would mutate and fuse into a Ghidorah when exposed to high levels of radiation. It was hoped they would be a match for the real thing…"

Hikaru trailed off. Saeko surely knew the rest, she had a way of finding out things that were supposed to be classified. The M-Watch recovery teams had only found the Dorat-Ghidorah's head that had been ripped from its body during the battle. The rest of the body had mysteriously disappeared when it sank beneath the waves and nobody could figure out why. A mass of that size wouldn't have been pushed too far from where it sank by the ocean currents, but there was no trace of it.

Saeko nodded, grinning. "I tried to warn you. He is too much of a perfect killer to be an unnatural monster. You notice how he has three heads but they never fight with each other? If King Ghidorah was a fused monster, he wouldn't display that same kind of harmony."

Saeko had always displayed a certain amount of intuitiveness when it came to kaiju, but it wasn't until recently that Hikaru was really starting to appreciate that fact. "Well, you were definitely right, even though I never thought I'd hear harmony and Ghidorah's name in the same sentence… I compared Ghidorah's cell structure to my version and I found his cells were much more complicated than the Dorat-Ghidorah."

"You've got to learn to listen to me more."

Hikaru laughed. "I thought I was the parent here."

Before Saeko could reply, the door opened to admit Professor Sean Varnbel. Hikaru's colleague was Irish by blood and it showed in his shock of thinning red hair. Lately Varnbel had been showing several symptoms of sleep deprivation, as there always seemed to be heavy bags under his eyes, but then again, sleep was a rare commodity at the facility as it was.

"Sean," Hikaru greeted. "How did command take your Gabara proposal this time?"

"Same as always," the other scientist grumbled. For several months now, Varnbel had been trying to convince the leaders of M-Watch's science division that they could summon a monster made entirely of mental thoughts to fight for them. Despite his persistence, his idea was always rejected. "I've finally given up on them. They'd never recognize a good idea if you slapped them over the face with it."

Varnbel's face deepened into a scowl as he appeared to notice Saeko for the first time. "What is your daughter doing here, Chen? You know it's against the rules to allow civilians into the lab."

Saeko glared back, but didn't budge.

"She was just leaving," Hikaru said, more to Saeko than to Varnbel. He really didn't want to get into an argument about the liberties Saeko kept taking, not right now.

"I don't suppose I'll see you at home anytime this week?" she asked rhetorically as she started to leave.

Hikaru regretted his answer, but he couldn't tear himself away from his work at this juncture, not now that he had Ghidorah's actual cells to study. "I'm sorry, probably not. I'll try and make some time, but no promises."

"Right," Sakeo replied, sounding disappointed as she exited the room.

"You really need to discipline that girl more, Chen," Varnbel volunteered. "I'm amazed the base commander lets her get away with the stuff that she does."

"So, given up on Gabara, huh?" Hikaru put forth in an effort to get the subject off of his daughter. "Are you going to help out on my latest project?"

"Creating a new monster from Ghidorah's cells? No thanks. Personally I think your idea is just another waste of resources like the Dorat-Ghidorah was." Varnbel sat down at another terminal and began accessing assorted files. "And I didn't give up on Gabara, just trying to get it approved. Until I can make Gabara a reality, I'm going to concentrate on Adams's little project to find weaknesses in the kaiju we have on file."

Hikaru nodded, but didn't say any more as he turned back towards his work. He didn't feel particularly inclined to press Varnbel for more information, not when he had the cells of Ghidorah just begging to be studied.

Inwardly he laughed at Varnbel's persistence that Gabara could become a reality. A monster powered by thought? Ridiculous! Varnbel was a brilliant man, but he was also stubborn as a rock. Nothing would be able to change his mind when he decided on something and Hikaru certainly didn't feel like striking up an argument with the irritable scientist.

Putting the idea of Gabara out of his mind, he resumed his study of the cells; scribbling down the intriguing data that continued to surface.

_M-Watch Machine Lab, Arizona._

General Douglas Nassel watched impassively through an enormous viewport as giant machines tirelessly worked to construct one of M-Watch's top projects. It was a mecha based upon the design of the Moguera robots that had come with the Mysterian invasion force. While the machine being constructed still retained the name, M-Watch had put forth a lot of resources improving upon the design.

The original robots had been weak, barely able to fight kaiju, but their simple design had made reverse-engineering them a far easier prospect than something as complicated as Mechagodzilla. Despite that, Nassel would have preferred to get his hands on the giant Godzilla doppelganger instead of being forced to improve the fragile Moguera robots, but after Godzilla had destroyed it for the second time, the wreckage of Mechagodzilla had simply disappeared before recovery teams could get to it… again.

Nassel was sure that aliens had been behind the disappearance. Just as he was sure that they had also been responsible for somehow spiriting away Chen's Ghidorah after the real King Ghidorah had disposed of it. He had no idea how these aliens managed to continually evade detection while carrying out the large operations they did, but it was really stating to irritate him.

"You wanted to see me, General?"

Nassel turned to find Commander Max Adams with his hand fixed in a firm salute. Adams was the perfect picture of a military recruiting poster. He was lean and muscular, but with a handsome face the demanded to be in the movies, not behind military hardware. Nassel saluted back before smiling.

"Congratulations on the Texas spider hunt, I heard you did well despite unforeseen complications."

Max smiled back, almost viciously. "We also ran into a previously unknown atomic anthill. Fortunately the napalm was just as effective on the ants as it was on that overgrown tarantula."

Nassel gestured to the uncompleted Moguera. "I'm curious as to your thoughts on Chen's work and Moguera. I've heard you don't think too highly of either project."

"No, sir, I don't." Adams paused as he glanced at Nassel. "Permission to speak candidly, sir?"

Nassel gave the okay with a nod.

"Chen is just asking for trouble by bringing another giant monster into this world. The last thing we need is more of those freaks running around. Personally, I think King Ghidorah did us a favor by killing the clone, or whatever it was, before it could cause trouble. The whole idea of creating a kaiju to fight for us is tempting fate." He sighed. "It'll backfire on us eventually. Mark my words."

"I actually happen to agree with you in that respect, Commander, but unfortunately I was outvoted." Nassel took his eyes off of Moguera and looked at Adams. "So why Moguera? Unlike a living being, there is no chance that a robot like Moguera will escape our control."

"It's still a giant freak," the other said simply. "Something that size is bound to cause unnecessary collateral damage no matter where it goes. Personally, I think the Japanese are on the right track with their Super X project. From what I've heard, it's a flying fortress without all of unnecessary trappings of a giant robot. I think it's the perfect anti-kaiju weapon. It's kinda like a K-41 on steroids."

"I can appreciate your viewpoint, Commander," Nassel said with a grunt. "But unfortunately the Japanese branch of M-Watch follows a different design philosophy than ours. They can afford to scale down because they have Godzilla to protect them. The U.S. has no such luxury. While King Kong is generally considered an American monster, he doesn't show up with the same regularity that Godzilla does for Japan."

"Another blessing."

"Regardless of your feelings, he did help us during that rash of kaiju attacks a few days ago. However, I didn't call you here to debate the philosophy of kaiju. I called you here, Commander, because you're going to be the top pilot for the Moguera."

Adams hesitated, knowing that he was addressing a superior officer. "With all due respect, sir… I would prefer not to pilot that thing. You know my reasons."

"I do indeed," Nassel confirmed. "And it is because of those reasons that I've chosen you. Aside from the fact that you're the best giant monster exterminator M-watch has ever seen, you're a damn fine pilot in your own right. You dislike Moguera because it will cause collateral damage which assures me that you'll use it responsibly, unlike a lot of the other hot-shot pilots jockeying to take the spot."

"Again, with all due respect, that is some twisted logic, sir."

Nassel chuckled. Adams could complain all he liked, but the General knew the brash young man was the best choice. Nassel had a feeling that the attacks two days ago were merely the start of something much larger.

_The Ruins of Seatopia._

During the prime of their existence, back in the time of the dawn of man, Seatopia had been a great civilization; easily a worthy equal to the mighty nation of Mu. Along with Atlantis, these three powerful oceanic nations had protected the Earth from invasion long before conventional humans had been capable of rational thought.

When Atlantis destroyed itself unexpectedly, it had left a power gap that had seen Seatopia and Mu start a war that eventually reduced both nations to shadows of their former glory. Seatopia's guardian kaiju, Megalon, had frequently clashed with Mu's Manda before both nations grew so tired of their long stalemate that they both went into isolation.

Over the long years since those ancient days, the high-minded ideals of the Seatopians had become steadily more corrupt. Each leader that came to power was only interested in the power and wealth such a position entitled him to. Such worthless decadence did not go unnoticed by Megalon…

After his defeat by Godzilla and the robot Jet Jaguar, Megalon allowed his resentment and growing disgust with the people of Seatopia to fester and develop into something much more dangerous. Being sent to the surface to stop the nuclear tests seemed to be the last gasp of good that the Seatopians were apparently capable of. After that, Megalon had seen no evidence that the people he had guarded for millennia were worthy of his protection.

When Megalon's new Demion allies had ordered the attack, the Seatopians had been completely unprepared for his betrayal and had died in droves as was befitting of pests. They really had nothing now that could withstand the fury of a kaiju. It was a slaughter of epic proportions as he hunted down and exterminated every last life.

Even that was not enough. With frequent blasts of his lightning horn and liberal use of his napalm bombs, he had set about reducing every structure to rubble to make sure that no trace of the Seatopians ever survived into future generations. His days of being a guardian kaiju were gone, perhaps forever. There was no race left on Earth worthy of his services.

Megalon released some more napalm bombs on one of the few parts of Seatopia that wasn't awash with flames before lifting into the air. He flew over the carnage, searching for more victims, eager to make sure that no one survived. He couldn't hear the cries of the dying anymore, and grinned inwardly with satisfaction.

Seatopia had been given the retribution they had so richly deserved, but the Demions still had another objective they wanted him to complete for them.

Megalon landed in the flames with a screech of triumph, barely feeling the heat of the fires. He brought his two drill hands together and burrowed into the earth to set out on his next task…

_The Ruins of Mu._

Mu could be considered luckier than Seatopia as their guardian monster, the serpent-dragon Manda, was not swayed by the persuasive words of the Demions. However, in retaliation, the Demions had sent a revived Hedorah to wipe out Mu and Manda.

The people of Mu were already dead from Hedorah's toxic smog, but Manda was showing some resistance to the toxicity of his opponent. Despite having no one left to protect, Manda battled on, searching for some way to bring down his perplexing foe.

Manda was an ancient kaiju and, while not as powerful as his contemporary counterparts, he had literally thousands of years of fighting experience to draw upon. His heart ached at the thought of failing the people of Mu, and he was determined to make sure that this strange monster would not escape alive. Using his greater speed to his advantage, Manda weaved between the burning buildings of Mu, looking to circle around behind Hedorah.

Unable to spot Manda due to the other monster being so low to the ground and hidden behind the crumbling buildings of Mu, Hedorah fired off random shots of his crimson energy beam, hoping to flush his opponent out. The powerful laser-like blasts reduced the fragile Mu buildings to cinders everywhere Hedorah fired. Unbeknownst to him, Manda had successfully managed to creep up behind him in preparation to strike.

With a hiss, Manda struck with the speed of a cobra, snaking his body around a surprised Hedorah. Grunting in victory now that Manda had his opponent at his mercy, the ancient kaiju began to constrict his body into Hedorah's soft body. His victory was short-lived though, as Manda quickly found out that Hedorah's body offered no resistance to his constriction. Manda squealed in dismay as he frantically tried to disengage from his attack, but he soon found out he was stuck within his opponent.

Hedorah burbled in pleasure as he grabbed onto Manda's exposed head with both hands and then collapsed on top of him, smothering the ancient protector in his toxic ooze and body slamming Manda's head into the ground at the same time. Hedorah could feel Manda trying to get out from under him, but the frantic movements of the serpentine creature soon slowed as Hedorah's toxic body did its job. When Manda finally ceased moving, Hedorah got back up, leaving Manda's unmoving body covered in his sludge.

Hedorah would have been content to leave Manda where he was and start consuming the black smoke pouring out of the fires, but at the commands of his Demion masters, Hedorah turned back to face his defeated opponent.

Closing his misshapen eyes, Hedorah concentrated for a bit before spewing forth a concentrated amount of his acidic mud. The deadly substance spilled onto the upper-half of Manda and quickly started dissolving away Manda's thick scales. Surprising Hedorah, Manda reared up with an agonized wail before falling back to the ground and laying still. With no life left in him to even scurry away, Hedorah's acidic mud soon dissolved Manda's body, leaving nothing but the poisoned lower half to symbolize Mu's futile last stand.

The smog monster turned from his defeated enemy and happily sucked down the smoke of fires as a reward, closing his eyes in pleasure…

_Monster Island._

Godzilla, the King of the Monsters, waded ashore to his island kingdom, the Ogasawara Islands, but better known to the world at large as the home of Monster Island. After his battle with Gigan, he had decided to rest for a day or two below the water. His injuries had healed almost as soon as the battle had ended, but it had been fierce and it had left him hungry and weary. Now, back to full strength, it was time to relax and perhaps teach Minya some more about fighting…

Once he was back on dry land, Godzilla could immediately sense something wrong. He could smell blood in the air. Something had happened in his absence, a battle had been fought somewhere on the island. That was nothing new, of course, the monsters who resided here fought all the time to test their skills. However, this time there was something that felt sinister about it.

Godzilla followed the scent of the blood, his large nostrils could sense that more than one monster had spilled blood today, but the scents all mixed together so he couldn't identify which monsters had fought.

As he lumbered across the island curiously, Godzilla noticed that the smell of blood grew stronger the closer he got to his lair. Growling worriedly, Godzilla crested the next hill to find a massacre.

Hundreds of Kamacuras littered the ground around Godzilla's lair, their smaller insect bodies crushed, broken, or simply laying limp. In the middle of this battlefield was Anguirus, sporting dozens of cuts on his body, having no doubt fought the swarm of Kamacuras.

Seeing his oldest friend, Anguirus wailed mournfully and stepped aside to show Godzilla something that made the great monster's heart swell with grief. The body of his young son, Minya, was lying prone on the ground. His young, gray, body was half-eaten and great cuts along the skin had spilled Minya's blood everywhere. The ground around his son's corpse was covered with it.

Godzilla knew that there was no way Minya could recover, not from wounds so grievous, his son was dead, but that didn't stop him from trying to breath radioactive life back into him. After a couple of failed tries, Godzilla gave up and moaned in a roar so soft, that only Anguirus could hear it.

He soon learned that while he had been fighting Gigan, a swarm of Kamacuras had attacked Minya out of nowhere. Anguirus, having been nearby, had heard Minya's cries and had rushed to battle the swarm. However, he had arrived too late to save Minya.

Godzilla released a powerful blast of his atomic ray, incinerating Minya's remains in a funeral pyre. He then let loose with a massive roar of pure rage that echoed across the ocean.


	4. Family Matters

**Chapter Two: **Family Matters

_Phoenix, Arizona. One Month Later._

Saeko sighed as tore off a piece of the restaurant's complimentary bread and munched on it. He was late! Her boyfriend was never known to be punctual, what with his duties and all, but it was a half hour over the time they had agreed to meet. If he ended up not showing, she was definitely going to give him hell about it later. She might even teach him a few martial arts moves the hard way.

Today marked the one year anniversary since they had first started dating. It was also one of the few times that Saeko had actually dressed up. She was wearing a little black dress that quite effectively showed off her stunning figure. As a rule, Saeko generally didn't like to flaunt her looks, but there were times when it was good to drop a few jaws.

She was waiting in one of the nicer restaurants in Phoenix, a classy sit-down spot that was perhaps one step away from becoming a shirt and tie place. Saeko didn't eat here often, but the food was good, even if the prices were a little more than they deserved to be. It had a nice atmosphere with someone playing classical piano in the middle of the room. There were couples seated at various tables, speaking quietly to each other. On occasion, she would notice one or two look in her direction with sympathy, probably assuming she had been stood up, which she did her best to ignore.

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting long," a familiar voice said from behind her.

Saeko didn't turn to greet her boyfriend and watched as he sat down, her arms crossed. "Max, what kept you? I was about ready to drive down there and drag your sorry butt to the restaurant."

Max Adams smiled that incorrigible smile of his. Dressed in his formal best, he certainly cut quite the dashing figure. At twenty-four Max was five years older than Saeko, but everyone agreed that Saeko was more of an adult than he was. Considering Saeko's wild ways, that was saying quite a bit. The age difference might have worried some, but Max had learned early on that Saeko was quite capable of fending off unwanted advances.

"I'm sorry, Saeko," he said in apology. "I truly am. You can use me for target practice later if you want, but I can assure you that I didn't forget our anniversary. Moguera's trials lasted longer than I expected. My father even dropped by as an observer."

Max's father was none other than the famous astronaut, Glenn Adams. Glenn had been one of the primary people responsible for repulsing the Xian invasion in the sixties. During the invasion the Xians had killed the love of his life, Namikawa, and after the Xians had been sent packing, Glenn had fallen into a deep depression over Namikawa's death. About a year later he moved back to the states and later married Max's mother, Clare, before they got divorced when Max was ten. After the Kilaak invasion of 1999, when M-Watch was formed, Glenn had joined up and had taken charge of the space defense program.

That was nearly everything Saeko knew of the famous Glenn Adams. Max didn't speak that much about his father and the few times she had spoken with Glenn in person, it had been about _her_ father's work. However it was clear that Max got his charm, as well as his tenacious streak, from his dad.

Saeko softened a bit, aware that Max didn't see his dad nearly as much as he should. In fact, he saw Glenn less than she saw her own father. While technical problems with Moguera might have had something to do with his being late, she was sure he took a little time to catch up with his dad before Glenn left elsewhere on business.

She smiled knowingly. "The trials took a little longer than you expected, eh? Everything working okay with Moguera?"

"It's those damn experimental ULT lasers they've put in Moguera's eyes," Max said with a frown. "Apparently it has something to do with a faulty heat sink ratio. I still think they should scrap the whole project. Don't get me wrong, I think the ultra low temperature lasers are the best innovation we've seen since masers, but I don't see why we can't just stick with mounting the things on conventional vehicles and get rid of the whole giant robot part of it."

No mention of his father, but then, Max didn't tend to talk about him… "Still lamenting about Moguera?" Saeko asked, content to stay on the current subject and not bring it up. Max would say something about Glenn if he felt it to be important and apparently he didn't. "A giant robot might be impractical, but I've heard that if it's successful it might be considered as the next Godzilla. Moguera would be seen as another monster to the other kaiju, and after it successfully drives off attacking kaiju, it will be as if it is claiming the US as its territory. The kaiju would stay away from the US because they would remember Moguera and would want to avoid fighting it."

"Maybe…" Max said, as he thought about it. "Maybe that would work for the bulk of the kaiju, but there are other monsters like Godzilla and King Kong who seem to thrive on fighting. The idea that there is a strong monster guarding our shores could make them start visiting us more frequently."

He shook his head ruefully. "I'll just leave it at that, though. I didn't come here to talk about work." He smiled as he took a small black box out of his jacket pocket and presented it to her. "Happy anniversary, Saeko."

Saeko took the small box curiously. Max knew her well enough to know that she didn't really go for the traditional gifts like jewelry, flowers, or chocolates. Usually he made his gifts suitably unique for her, so her interest was definitely piqued when she took the small jewelry box. Did Max intend to propose perhaps? If so, he was out of luck. She liked Max, a lot, but she definitely wasn't ready to take it to the next level.

She opened the box to find a small ivory pendant inside. The pendant was a round disk with a carving of King Ghidorah jutting from the center. The infamous Monster Zero was in front of a blazing sun. He had his wings spread and had one head facing right, another left, and the center one staring straight out with mouth open as if to attack. On the top of the carving there was an empty space where a hole had been cut. A silver chain had been strung through the hole so she could wear the pendant like a necklace.

She looked up at Max with a smile. "I love it."

Max grinned back, although his eyes danced as if he was hiding something. "I know how much you like kaiju, even if I don't care for them. It gets even better though. That's no ordinary ivory that the pendant has been cut out of. It came straight from the source, if you get my meaning."

Saeko's eye widened. "You don't mean…"

"Sure do," he confirmed for her. "After that bout in California, a large tooth was one of the items recovered. It wasn't as useful as the flesh samples, so it was locked away. I got your father to confirm that it was indeed from the real King Ghidorah before I convinced him to give me a small piece of it."

"I'm sure it was hell to get something like that approved from your superiors," Saeko said appreciatively as she admired the carving.

Max cleared his throat conspicuously. "I didn't exactly ask them for permission."

Saeko chuckled. "Somehow I thought that was the case."

"You know me so well," he agreed, before getting back to the subject at hand. "It was a lot tougher than I had expected too. It turns out King Ghidorah's tooth is harder to cut through than jade. We had to use an industrial laser in the lab to cut off a piece. I then gave it to a group of jewelers who specialized in jade jewelry. If I hadn't paid them to make it their top priority, I don't think they would have had it finished in time for our anniversary. Trust me Saeko, that sucker could probably take a bullet without so much as a scratch afterwards."

"You're a sweet man, you do know that, don't you?" she told him with genuine love as she reached down to try the talisman on. As her fingers brushed against the ivory of the pendant, she suddenly felt a chill strike her straight to the bone. Saeko pulled back her hand in shock, but it had struck her so fast that she almost wasn't sure if it had really happened.

Max, ever the observant one, noticed immediately. "What's wrong?"

Saeko reached down and experimentally touched the pendant again, but this time there was no chill. It felt just like a regular ivory pendant. "Nothing," she said. She didn't want Max to think there was anything wrong with his present, not after all the trouble he had gone through for it. Besides, there was no cold chill this time. The first time must have been her imagination. "A couple of those edges are sharper than I expected is all."

She brought the chain up and fastened it behind her neck. Putting the incident behind her, Saeko gestured towards the pendant resting just above her chest. "Well? How does it look."

"Beautiful, just like the owner," Max said smiling, apparently accepting the reason she had given him earlier about drawing back her hand.

"It's going to make that tie I got you look really cheap by comparison," Saeko said slyly.

"Nice try, but I can tell when you're joking."

Saeko laughed, already forgetting the pendant incident, as well as Max's tardiness, as she brought out her gift...

_M-Watch Kaiju Defender Lab. _

Hikaru looked over his creation with no small amount of pride. It had been a grueling month of hard research to reach this point, but as he looked over the new life he and his team would be bringing into the world, he knew it would all be worth it.

One of the missile silos of the converted base had been modified to serve as an artificial womb of sorts. The inside of the converted missile silo was sheathed in sterilized glass and filled with a synthetic embryonic fluid. Large, pressure treated windows looked into the 'womb' that contained his kaiju. Currently, his creation was floating and curled up in the fetal position, in deep sleep. It would be some time before Hikaru and his team saw fit to wake him up.

Right now it was little more than a blue lizard-like fetus, barely formed, but it was growing at a phenomenal rate. The fetus was already as large as a normal man and twice as thick. Hikaru could pick out the beginnings of features that would later develop into the wings, or the tail, or the spines along it's back. Hikaru had a good idea of what his new kaiju would look like fully formed as he had been the one primarily responsible for inputting all of the genetic data. If all continued as estimated, his new kaiju would be fully grown in another month.

It was strange, but for some reason he had taken a personal hand in every aspect having to do with this new monster. Unlike with the Dorat-Ghidorah, where he had been content to let his team do a lot of the grunt work, Hikaru found he was compelled to do most of the work by himself. He didn't quite understand it, but he felt a definite attraction to this new kaiju. He was even considering a few names for his creation, although ultimately it would be up to his M-Watch superiors to give the official name.

It was late in the night, almost morning. The lab abandoned. Hikaru had the run of the place and even though he had been up for nearly twenty-four hours, he didn't feel tired. Instead he was perched in front of a computer typing in data for the final phase of his new kaiju's development before it would be sent to fight. Occasionally he would steal a glance at his growing kaiju through the window before returning to his work.

He felt terribly guilty about Saeko. Aside from the times when she would invite herself into his lab and talk with him, he almost didn't see her anymore. He knew she had gone out on a date with Max Adams for their anniversary tonight. Given the time, she was probably back by now, but Hikaru could hardly enforce Saeko's curfew if she decided to stay out late.

The irony that he was spending more time with his new monster than with his daughter did not escape Hikaru. Nor did the idea that he was starting to consider this growing kaiju to be something like family to him. After all, why shouldn't he think that way? He was putting his blood, sweat, and tears into this. He was giving the project his all. If it hadn't been for him, this new life would never have happened. The kaiju might be related to King Ghidorah by genetics, but it was Hikaru's love for it - yes it was love - that truly made him it's father.

As he came to that realization, his pang of guilt for not spending time with Saeko deepened and he suddenly felt very weary as his lack of proper sleep seemed to catch up with him. He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes under his glasses. "I think that's all for tonight," he mumbled as he saved the data and closed the files.

It would be a nice surprise for Saeko to actually see him at breakfast. Yes, perhaps he might even take a day off to spend with her. Even as he considered it, Hikaru knew it would never happen. Breakfast he could do, but taking the whole day off? M-Watch would never allow that.

They needed this new kaiju defender as soon as possible. There was simply no telling when the next attack would come. It had been pretty quiet since the attacks of a month ago, but Hikaru had picked up on some gossip that said they were starting to have problems in Africa. Apparently there was a giant insect problem deep in the continent's heart that the UN forces were having trouble getting under control.

No, they wouldn't let him take a day off, not until he finished his work. Once that was done, however, he promised himself that he would take a family vacation to make it up to Saeko, even if he had to quit M-Watch to do so.

Hikaru stood and stretched muscles that hadn't budged for hours with a weary groan. If he made it back to their quarters now, he would have just enough time to get a decent amount of sleep before breakfast…

He started to head for the exit before a flash of light behind him stopped him in his tracks. Hikaru, unsure what to expect, turned to face the oddity and took a step back in surprise when he saw a small version of Mothra, which was ironically enough, still larger than any normal-sized moth. The large insect was hovering near chest level on Hikaru. It took Hikaru's tired mind a moment to recall that this was Fairy Mothra.

Fairy Mothra was a relatively new power associated with Mothra. It was unknown if the tiny creature was an extension of Mothra's power or had been created by the tiny women who were always seen using Fairy Mothra as transportation.

Not surprisingly, those same two women were riding Fairy Mothra now. They were Asian in appearance and were identical in all ways. Their long black hair was done up in an intricate long braid and they both wore simple, yet elegant red dresses.

The entire group was glowing in a soft golden light.

"Sho… Shobijin!" He said in astonishment. Hikaru knew of Mothra and her priestesses of course, and he knew that they never showed up unless there was trouble. "Why are you here?"

His question was answered with another as the Shobijin spoke in unison. "Why are you in league with King Ghidorah?" They all said plaintively. "Why are you helping to spread his evil?"

Hikaru was momentarily at a loss as to what they could be talking about… but he soon realized it had to have been about that Dorat version he had created. "You're too late," he told them. "My Dorat clone was destroyed by the real thing, but it was never evil."

"No," they corrected him. "Mothra has sensed the evil of another who has the same aura of King Ghidorah. It is an evil that is growing."

Growing? They couldn't mean… Hikaru's eyes shifted to the kaiju embryo that was growing in the tank.

The Shobijin followed his vision and Fairy Mothra came in closer so that they could inspect the creature within. The looked at each other and nodded before facing Hikaru. "Your new creation carries with it the same evil as Ghidorah. You must destroy it now before it's too late."

For the second time since the Shobijin had arrived, Hikaru was taken aback. "You can't be serious!" Even as he spoke those words, he knew how foolish that sounded. Of course the priestesses were serious, anything that got them away from Infant Island was serious. He walked up next to the tank, anxious to justify himself. "Listen, I'll admit that I used Ghidorah's cells as a starting place, but they have been extensively modified. Besides, I find it doubtful to believe that just because Ghidorah is evil that my creation will be as well."

"There are exceptions to every rule," they told him sagely. "Ghidorah's evil is so strong that it taints everything it touches. The same blood that flows in Ghidorah flows in your kaiju as well. When he wakes up, he will become a destroyer of worlds like Ghidorah."

Hikaru held up a hand. "Wait a minute," he said as he sat down and quickly brought up the program he had been working on earlier. "Assume for a moment that I believe you… well we've been working on something for his final phase of development that could make Ghidorah's taint null and void. Once my kaiju is fully grown, we'll be attaching a device to his brain to train it. In addition to making him intelligent, the training will also hardwire commands into his very psyche so that he will have no choice but to obey commands. It's a more advanced version of what we did with the Dorat-Ghidorah. He won't have a chance to be evil because he'll be at our command."

The Shobijin shook their heads sadly. "It won't be enough. He will break free of the programming."

Hikaru could feel his anger start to rise at the implacable attitudes of the priestesses. "Hold on! I seem to recall several times in our past when Ghidorah was being mind controlled by alien invaders. How come he never broke free of those commands?"

"King Ghidorah only went along with their commands because they fed his desire to kill and destroy. Ghidorah would have turned on them if they tried to have him do anything different."

They bowed in apology. "We are sorry, but the kaiju must be destroyed before it can grow any more."

Hikaru sat, bewildered, as he tried to come up with a good argument. He suddenly found himself wondering how the tiny Shobijin were planning to destroy something easily five times their size.

He soon got his answer.

The priestesses started singing in unison as the golden glow around them intensified. It wasn't the Mothra song though, this was something completely different. For the life of him, he couldn't decipher the words. It wasn't Japanese and it sure wasn't English. It seemed to be from a language that was long dead. All Hikaru knew was that the song made him very uncomfortable when he heard it.

When he saw his creation start to glow the same golden color, he realized that the song was meant to destroy.

Without even thinking, he pushed himself out of his chair and placed himself in front of the priestesses. "Please!" he found himself begging. "Please! Don't destroy it. Isn't there something else you can do? This kaiju is special to me, I've put my soul into Arashi's creation! There must be some other way!"

The Shobijin stopped their song abruptly as they looked at each other before their gaze turned distant. Hikaru realized that they were likely contacting Mothra, or she was contacting them. In either case, when they looked at him again, they appeared very reluctant.

"Arashi?" they asked. "You have named him?"

Hikaru hesitated. He hadn't even realized that he had blurted out the name until the Shobijin had repeated it back to him. "I… I have. It's not official, but that's the name I've been calling him in my head." He felt embarrassed as he admitted the next: "I love him… I do. I've grown to love Arashi like I love my daughter. I know he can accomplish great things if given a chance. Please, I'll take all responsibility, but there must be something you can do other than destroying him."

"We can try to exorcise the evil of Ghidorah out of his system, but it won't be easy," they told him grimly. "He is not fully grown so the volume that we have to exorcise may be small enough that we can accomplish this without the need for Mothra to be here. Arashi was created with love, and not soullessly as we first thought, so that may work in our favor. Keep a prayer for Arashi as we attempt to exorcise Ghidorah's evil."

Hikaru nodded, unsure of what to say as he moved away from the tank. He was just thankful that there was a chance Arashi could be saved.

The priestesses started singing another song as their golden aura grew again. Likewise, Arashi's body glowed as it did last time. All Hikaru could do now was trust that the Shobijin would keep their word. It was a small fear, but it was borne out of a parent's protectiveness for his child.

The song lasted longer than Hikaru would have guessed, stretching almost into a good fifteen minutes. During that time, he found he could see what looked like a dark mist flowing out of Arashi and evaporating into nothingness.

When the song finally started to wind down, Fairy Mothra and the Shobijin all but collapsed on a nearby desk. Hikaru rushed over to them to make sure they were okay, but when he spoke, the first words out of his mouth were: "Did it work?"

The priestesses took a moment to answer as they appeared to catch their breath. Despite the fact that they were both winded, they still managed to speak in unison. "We managed to expel the majority of the evil, but we couldn't get all of it. There are some lingering traces of it left."

"Can you rest up and try again?"

"There is no time," they told him. "There have been many strange things happening lately and Mothra believes there is a sinister motive behind it. We need to return and assist her in discovering what this new threat is."

Hikaru felt a deep fear in the pit of his stomach as struggled to get out his next question. "Are you still planning to destroy Arashi?"

The pause before the Shobijin answered was almost deafening. "No. Enough of Ghidorah's evil has been expelled that your plans to control him should work now. We are trusting you to live up to your promise. Good or evil, Arashi will play a pivotal role in the near future."

"I won't disappoint you," he promised solemnly. "The last thing I want to do is unleash another horror like Ghidorah."

The Shobijin nodded but didn't say another word as Fairy Mothra lifted off from the desk and all three of them disappeared in a flash of light.

Once they were gone, Hikaru sighed as he walked back to the tank and put his hand on the glass. "You hear me?" he said to the inert form of Arashi. "I'm putting all of my faith into you. In a way, so is the whole world."

As it turned out, Hikaru didn't make it back to the quarters he and Saeko shared until well into the morning. After the visit by the Shobijin, he had been so worried about Arashi slipping into evil, that the only thing he could think of was perfecting the training program. Finally, when he could barely keep his eyes open any longer, he gave in and shambled towards the Chen family quarters and his little-used bed.

When he came in, he found that Saeko was already up and had made breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, orange juice. It was far from a traditional Japanese breakfast, but Saeko had picked up a lot of American habits since they had moved over here.

She smiled as she saw him enter. "The dead live again," she joked. "Can I interest you in some breakfast?"

He smiled tiredly. "I'm so sorry. I wanted to get back sooner but-" Hikaru cut himself off as he spied an ivory pendant of Ghidorah being worn by his daughter like a necklace. "Is that what I think it is?" he asked worriedly, his mind invariably recalling when he had given Max that shard of Ghidorah's tooth and more recently the Shobijin's assertion that Ghidorah's evil essence tainted every part of his body.

"You like it?" she asked, not picking up on his concern as she fingered the pendant. "I know you helped Max to make it. I think it turned out great."

"You need to take that off right now," he said with more force than he meant.

This, of course, had the opposite effect as Saeko clutched the pendant protectively. "What? Why?"

Hikaru sighed as he all but fell into a chair. "The Shobijin visited me in the lab last night with concerns about Arashi."

"Your kaiju?"

"Yes," Hikaru confirmed. "They told me that Ghidorah's evil infests every part of that space monster's body and will corrupt anything that comes into contact with it. I didn't fully believe it until I saw them exorcise Ghidorah's aura out of Arashi." He looked at his daughter. "Are you feeling okay, Saeko? Have you felt any different since you got that pendant?"

Saeko seemed to hesitate, but shook her head. "I feel fine. I… did feel a cold tingle when I first touched it, but that hasn't happened since."

Hikaru rubbed the stubble that had accumulated on his face over the night, as he furrowed his brow thoughtfully. "Curious. I never felt any such cold chill as I was handling the Ghidorah samples. In fact, aside from the jewelers, I've probably been the person who has been exposed the most to Ghidorah's samples and I don't feel any different. Did Max mention anything strange about the jewelers, perhaps?"

"Not a word."

"Something is not adding up and for the life of me, I can't figure out what," he said. "I know I must be missing something obvious."

"I think you're just taking the warning of the priestesses too seriously," Saeko suggested. "Ghidorah's evil would be a problem for Arashi, who is a living thing made from his cells, but the samples you got of Ghidorah are all dead. Maybe the evil just doesn't last after the part it inhabits dies?"

"You might be right," he said, too tired to give it anymore thought. He still had a feeling he was missing something vital, but Saeko's explanation seemed to fit. "It'll probably come to me after I rest up."

Saeko took a bite of her eggs, but didn't say anything else. Simply shrugging in answer.

Hikaru grunted as he lifted himself out of the chair and stumbled towards his bed, nodding at Saeko in a silent parting as he left the room. Yes, once Arashi was grown and in M-Watch's hands, he would take a vacation with Saeko. There was no telling how much time he had left with her…

Hikaru Chen was not the only one who regularly went without sleep. General Douglas Nassel of M-Watch was another who couldn't be bothered by the needs of the body as he committed himself fully to the cause.

After the Kilaak invasion, the UN had come to a decision that there needed to be a worldwide agency to police kaiju activity and protect the people from the evil kaiju that seemed to have a fixation for harassing the Earth. Monster Watch, called M-Watch for short, was formed soon afterwards. When word got around that a new agency had been formed to protect the world from monsters, nations all over the world had petitioned M-Watch to install facilities in their country.

Because it served such a vital purpose, M-Watch soon became the most well-funded agency working under the UN. M-Watch quickly became integrated all over the world with major offices in Tokyo, Moscow, and various other high profile countries. The M-Watch world headquarters were located in New York, next to the UN assembly.

It was scary sometimes to think of the power and resources that M-Watch had at its disposal. Moguera alone had the power to lay waste to entire armies, and Japan's Super-X was certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Occasionally that power got out of hand. The Russian division had been hard at work on a crazy project known as the Dimension Tide which was designed to fire a miniature black hole at the Earth from space and completely swallow a kaiju in the singularity. Once it was discovered what they were building, the other leaders of M-Watch had been quick to put a stop to it.

Many of the smaller nations under M-Watch's guard were experimenting with gas repellents similar to the kind that had worked so successfully on Monster Island before the Kilaaks had destroyed the facilities there.

Monster Island itself had been abandoned after the invasion. Even though a lot of the kaiju still congregated there, a few had left. Manda was presumed to be back with Mu and it was confirmed that Mothra had gone back to Infant Island.

There had been a definite shift in thinking after the Kilaak attack. When the monsters had attacked King Ghidorah and the Kilaaks on their own, it was finally realized that it would be far more beneficial to work with the good kaiju instead of trying to control them. So, for that reason, Monster Island was watched from satellite, and the occasional observation team that went to the island, but otherwise it was M-Watch policy to stay away.

That policy wasn't popular with everyone, but so far the majority far outweighed the minority.

And that made Nassel's current problems even more of a headache… Ever since it was confirmed that a Kamacuras swarm had killed Minya, a strange mist had formed around the island, preventing any observation from space or a manned team from finding the island. M-Watch was completely blind to anything that was going on at Monster Island, all they knew was that ever since Minya's death, not a single monster had left the island.

Not eager to violate their new hands-off policy, M-Watch command was content so far to sit back and see what happened.

Besides, they had more pressing problems elsewhere.

Africa was under siege by a veritable insect army. Not only had the Kamacuras swarms mysteriously been transported there, along with the spider Kumonga, but there was a new menace aiding them; giant dragonflies nearly five meters across. They were named Meganura after the ancient prehistoric insect of the primeval world because they shared many similarities with it.

When it was first noticed that this entomological horde was advancing out of the Congo, M-Watch had been quick to respond. They managed to successfully fight off the insects and keep them contained with conventional weapons. However, that quickly changed when a new factor was added.

Megaguirus.

When the giant Meganura queen showed up on the battlefield, the tide quickly shifted in favor of the insects. Not only was Megaguirus fast, her sonic vibrations shorted out every machine in the area, making fighting her a near impossibility.

The armies of M-Watch were fighting a losing battle as the insects claimed parts of Gabon, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, Uganda, Kenya, and the Central African Republic. If this continued, they would cut Africa in half.

Chemical attacks were being tried, but so far they were having little effect and M-Watch had no choice but to retreat. Moguera and the Super-X were currently not able to combat something like Megaguirus. To add to the misery, not a single good kaiju had so far showed up to help combat the insect swarm which was causing a lot of people to feel betrayed. Why were they not helping as they had in the past? Had M-Watch made a mistake with the hands-off policy?

In addition, M-Watch's failure so far to get the African situation under control was generating severe criticism from world leaders. The only saving grace was that no one had a better idea of what to do, short of nuking the continent.

One thing Nassel knew for sure was that they needed Professor Chen's new kaiju now more than ever. It was quite possibly the only hope they had left to rely on.


	5. The Demon Advances

**Chapter Three: **The Demon Advances

_One Month Later._

The efforts of the Humans to stop the insect advance in Africa had been largely in vain. It mattered not what they threw at the horde, they couldn't stop it. The insects, under the leadership of Megaguirus, succeeded in cutting the continent in half. She would have continued to advance her forces if not for the command of Centaurus to stop and recoup her army.

The African campaign had been implemented for one reason only, to help fracture the thin ties of brotherhood that kept the UN functioning while the Demions prepared for the next phase of their invasion. The surviving African nations, especially the ones who were next in line to be invaded, were near bankruptcy trying to keep an adequate supply of anti-kaiju weaponry on hand. It would do them little good when Megaguirus attacked, but the pathetic inhabitants needed some illusion of security to cling to.

It made Centaurus laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all. As long as he kept applying pressure, the fractures already inherent in the civilization of the Humans would be torn asunder completely.

Very few nations were willing to lend combat support to the losing war in Africa. Megaguirus was all the proof most of those nations needed that sending war machines and soldiers would just be a waste of resources. They were quite correct in their reasoning, but it mattered not. The surviving African nations on the UN were quick to criticize the lack of support. The daily debates were bogging down the proceedings and making any progress the UN made in developing a solution to Megaguirus slow at best.

To make matters even more delicious for Centaurus, millions upon billions of refugees from Africa were swarming towards Europe and Asia, or braving the seas trying to reach the imagined safety of the Americas. Such a huge influx of immigrants was having a definite negative effect on the countries who were forced to take in these survivors.

Yes, Human civilization was starting to strain at the seams. It was time to start snipping the last threads that were holding it together…

_M-Watch Kaiju Defender Lab, Arizona._

Hikaru Chen couldn't rid himself of a funny feeling in his stomach. Even though he wasn't privy to a lot of what went on in M-Watch command, and he was usually too busy to watch the news, he had picked up enough to know that things were getting progressively worse.

He couldn't decide what the feeling in his stomach was exactly; dread or hope. For while he had a lot to worry about, he also had one thing to look forward to. Arashi, M-Watch had decided to go with the name, was nearly ready to be deployed. His kaiju was fully grown now, all that remained was training Arashi's brain as he had promised the Shobijin.

Currently the kaiju was resting in a converted missile silo, awaiting the new programming Hikaru would be putting into its brain. His creation was still floating and curled up in the fetal position, but there was one major difference that distinguished Arashi now, other than his growing larger.

Huge cables, filled with fiber-optic lines, were linked to a special device on the kaiju's head and led back to the supercomputers within the compound that would be instrumental in completing the final phase before Arashi would be deemed fit to go into combat. Right now, the kaiju only possessed the intelligence of a common animal, something that would be changing quite soon if all went as planned. Once Hikaru and his team started the 'brain training' in earnest, his creation would have near-human level intelligence and the mind would be sufficiently malleable for it to follow commands unquestioningly, just as Dorat-Ghidorah had.

Hikaru had named him Arashi because in his native Japanese it meant storm. It seemed like a perfect moniker for his creation, considering the special abilities that rested in Arashi's genetic makeup.

His pride and joy measured 120 meters tall now and bore little resemblance to his erstwhile 'father,' Ghidorah. Armored dark blue scales covered him from head to tail, a marked change from the golden scales they were patterned after. The reason for this was that they had been engineered to be tougher than Ghidorah's. Hikaru had used a special manmade protein of his own design that had an unforeseen side effect of staining the golden hue into its current color.

Arashi's body resembled that of a therapod dinosaur. He rested on top of two massive legs and had two powerful arms that ended in three taloned fingers and a thumb on each hand. Unlike the bodies of the dinosaurs, Arashi did not need his tail primarily for balance, and Chen had modified it from Ghidorah's base form and made it long and whip-like.

Two massive wings, with a span of 175 meters, were currently folded on Arashi's back. His muscular neck, while not as long as Ghidorah's, was still vaguely snakelike to give the kaiju a speedy advantage in biting attacks. Arashi's head was also serpentine, with a large mouth filled with two rows of sharp teeth. A single thick horn rested on his nose.

A column of thin spines ran down the back of Arashi's body, starting from the back of his head and ending at the base of his tail.

All-in-all, Hikaru had made a monster that resembled the ancient dragons of European myth. It was an odd choice for him considering that he was of Asian descent, but he had figured that M-Watch America would be more comfortable with a form they were more familiar with.

"Still starry-eyed about this abomination of yours?" A condescending voice said from behind him. "It's a conventional design and therefore it is inherently flawed. It will never survive prolonged combat."

Hikaru turned to face Sean Varnbel with a raised eyebrow, doing his best to suppress his irritation. Lately Varnbel had become more and more verbal about his dislike of Arashi and he seemed compelled to let Hikaru know about it every time they saw each other. "At least Arashi is based on real science, which is more than I can say for your proposed entry into M-Watch's kaiju defender project. Gabara will never be anything more than a fevered dream."

Varnbel laughed, the tone of which bordered right on being manic. "Gabara's dream is a reality."

Something else that was becoming evident was Varnbel's increasingly erratic behavior. When Hikaru had first meet Varnbel, the other professor had been fiercely dedicated to his ideas, but he had also demonstrated a strong intellect. Lately though, in fact ever since this Gabara business came about, Varnbel's dedication to Gabara seemed so zealous that it bordered on mad scientist. He would often get into arguments with the other scientists about him, sometimes physically.

At first Hikaru had assumed it was due to Varnbel's lack of sleep. Like him, Varnbel didn't rest that much. Now though, Hikaru wasn't so sure…

"What are you talking about, Varnbel?" he asked cautiously. "Gabara was canceled in the planning stages. It was too infeasible to work."

"Perhaps," Varnbel agreed cryptically. "But the limited minds of my superiors will no longer be a problem. I've come to tell you, Chen, that this is my last day. I've found new employment with a group who agree with my ideas."

That took Hikaru by surprise, but there were private enterprises out there trying to make money by developing anti-kaiju weapons. It was entirely possible that Varnbel had been bought by one of them. He managed a smile as he extended a hand. "I'll be sorry to see you go, Sean. We may have argued a lot in the past, but I always did respect your conviction. I hope you manage to prove me wrong about Gabara."

Varnbel declined any contribution to the handshake and kept his hands clasped behind his back. "A word of advice, Hikaru… I think today would be a good day to take that vacation with your daughter that you're always going on about. You work way too much."

Before Hikaru could question just what Varnbel meant by that, the professor turned and left, apparently done talking. Hikaru watched him leave, trying to figure out what he meant by that last cryptic remark, before shaking his head in exasperation. Varnbel was definitely out of it. He only had a day or two left before Arashi was ready to be implemented. His vacation with Saeko could easily wait till then.

Putting Varnbel out of his mind, Hikaru got back to work. If he slaved through the night, he could get a large portion of the new brain pattern he had created imprinted over Arashi's feral base thoughts by the day's end…

_M-Watch Headquarters, New York._

The alarm klaxons that signified a kaiju attack suddenly blared to life in the command center of M-Watch. General Nassel waited patiently for his subordinates to get more details. Aside from the disaster in Africa, there hadn't been a kaiju problem since the attacks of a few months ago.

The large viewscreen in the front of the command center switched from a world map showing the current locations of the known locations of kaiju to a real-time video-feed of the newest menace. It was some sort of ogre-ish monstrosity with knobby green skin and a pugish, vaguely dog-like face. On top of its head rested a short row of long horns. Even as he watched, the new kaiju gave out an odd-sounding caterwaul.

"What the hell is that thing?" Nassel wondered aloud.

"Unknown, sir," Commander Onder reported. "It just suddenly appeared out of nowhere. I can't explain it. There also is no record of it in our database."

"I believe that is Gabara," an awed voice spoke up.

Nassel looked to his right, where the voice had originated. Professor Matthew Diamr was the head of M-Watch's research division, and was thus privy to everything that went on in the scientific circles of M-Watch.

"Care to explain, Professor?" Nassel asked.

"Gabara was the brainchild of Professor Sean Varnbel," Diamr explained with a nervous adjustment of his glasses. "I vetoed his idea in favor of Doctor Chen's Arashi proposal. Anyway, according to Varnbel, Gabara would not only be powered by mental energy, he would be composed of it. The monster we are seeing now very closely mirrors the initial designs Varnbel showed me."

Nassel studied Diamr for a moment. He remembered hearing talk of Varnbel and Gabara, but he had been more concerned with the Moguera and the African crisis to bother investigating any further. He regretted it now because he wasn't getting the concept. "Comprised of mental energy? What exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"According to Varnbel, it means that Gabara does not have a conventional body. It can't feel pain, it can't be wounded. It exists only to do the bidding of its master. Essentially, it would be invincible." Diamr shrugged. "There's no way to tell if the Gabara we are seeing here matches the one Varnbel envisioned."

"You speak of Varnbel in the past tense," Nassel noticed. "What happened to him?"

Diamr looked surprised. "Oh, well, actually today was his last day with M-Watch. He left for another job that he refused to talk about. He followed procedure and handed over all of his files and anything else that we would need to be kept out of the private sector, so I had no choice but to let him go."

"We've extrapolated Gabara's course," Onder reported. "He appears to be heading straight for the Kaiju Defender Research Lab in Arizona."

"That's where Arashi is being housed," Diamr reminded Nassel rather needlessly.

"What do we have in the way of defenses at that base?" Nassel asked.

"Nothing that will stop a kaiju," Onder told him regretfully as he consulted a readout screen. "A handful of tanks and a regiment of infantry. It was decided that not calling attention to the base would do more for security than a bigger military force."

"Send the tanks to intercept Gabara. Alert Luke Air Force Base to scramble their jets." When he saw Diamr attempt to protest, Nassel held up a hand. "I know the _theory_ is that Gabara is invulnerable, but that isn't proven yet. If it looks like they're having no effect, have them pull out. In any case, I only want them to delay Gabara until Moguera arrives."

Nassel smiled tightly. "It's time for Mr. Adams to earn his pay and to prove Moguera's worth."

Chen rubbed his eyes wearily, he was only about halfway done inputting Arashi's new brain. Stifling a yawn, Chen stretched his arms and reluctantly got up from his computer terminal. As eager as he was to finally finish Arashi, staring at the lines upon lines of code that constituted the kaiju's new brain was, ironically enough, mind-numbing. He needed some more coffee before continuing.

Chen didn't get far before the distinct alarms that warned of an impending kaiju attack sounded. He froze in place, unsure what to do. Procedure dictated that since he was a noncombatant he was supposed to report to the nearest safe area. On the other hand, he couldn't just abandon his creation now that it was in its most fragile state. There was no telling what the effect would be if Arashi's mind transfer was interrupted.

Sean Varnbel laughed with delight as Gabara approached the base that housed the kaiju project. The tanks that had been sent to intercept the demon of dreams had been predictably ineffective. Their shells did little more than bounce off of the kaiju's skin. The jets shared the same fate. Gabara was able to destroy them all with little trouble.

Over Varnbel's head rested a silver helmet of alien manufacture, but one that used the blueprint that he had designed. This helmet was what gave Gabara form and power, as long as Varnbel wore it, the monster would do his bidding. It also allowed him to see the world through Gabara's eyes and funnel more mental energy to him if the need should arise. If, for some reason, Varnbel were to take off the helmet, Gabara would disappear.

Gabara really was the perfect monster. _"Your revenge is at hand, my lord," _he said to Gabara mentally. _"There is nothing that can defeat you."_

"_My revenge will not be complete until this planet is a cinder," _Gabara corrected him. _"Then, once that is accomplished, I will crush the Demions and all who reside in this reality. No one will be spared."_

"_Except for me," _Varnbel reminded him. _"It was I who gave you form in this place."_

Gabara laughed maliciously. _"Your soul is mine, Sean. I have no need to destroy you."_

The old Sean Varnbel would have balked at that thought, but now his mind was so far gone that Varnbel only felt comfort at the proclamation.

Even though he owed the Demions for giving him the technology to bring Gabara into this reality, he couldn't disobey his master. Gabara would destroy everything in his sight.

"God damn monsters!" Max growled as he rushed into the piloting room for Moguera. The giant robot was designed to be controlled remotely to eliminate the possibility of death for the pilot. The actual piloting room was currently located in the machine lab. The commands would be relayed through a special military satellite from the room to Moguera.

There were plans to construct a combat transport that would function as the pilot's room as a backup in case the satellite network was ever compromised, but it was still in the preliminary stages.

Max's hands moved through the start-up commands fluidly. Monitors came to life all over the room as Moguera got ready for lift-off. It was then that Max got a good look at his target.

"You are an ugly one, aren't you?" he mumbled to the screen. "I don't really care how you made it this far inland without being detected, but your rampage ends here."

Max hit the throttle for Moguera's engines and watched the land under him become a blur as the giant robot left for battle.

"This hunk of junk better be worth it."

Gabara advanced with a challenging yowl. What few tanks had survived were already in retreat, unable to do anything to halt the kaiju's advance. Dozens of trucks were hauling personnel away from the doomed base and away from Gabara. The kaiju let them go, unconcerned, for now, of such inconsequential pests. There was a bigger target here, the monster known as Arashi.

With purpose, Gabara approached the converted missile silo that held Arashi's body and leaned down, clawing at the ground to find the crack in the closed silo doors. He didn't make much progress before his body was unexpectedly pummeled by a salvo of freezing laser blasts.

Yelping in surprise, Gabara turned to find a silvery object descending from the sky. It had a head that seemed too small for its large body. Both of its immense arms ended in rounded cones and its legs, looking vaguely like pantaloons, ended with feet that had treads on the bottom. With his mind connected to Varnbel's, Gabara knew this strange creature was really a robot named Moguera.

He also knew that it posed no threat to him.

Releasing another caterwaul, Gabara approached, eager to destroy this creation of man. As soon as Moguera landed, it opened every weapon port it had and aimed for Gabara. ULT lasers in it's eyes, a plasma maser cannon in it's chest, spiral grenades from it's 'hands', and hidden missile launchers from armored ports on different parts of it's body. Everything was ready to fire.

Max waited for Gabara to draw a little closer so the kaiju could experience the full effect of its weapons. As soon as the monster was within the designated range, Moguera fired everything it had. It unleashed salvo after salvo into Gabara, unwilling to give its foe a chance to recover. Kaiju were notoriously difficult to kill and Max wasn't willing to take any chances by giving Gabara time to retaliate.

The enormous amounts of energy and ammo being expelled quickly covered the area where Gabara was standing with black smoke and fire. Nothing could be seen within the hellstorm, let alone Gabara's condition, and still the great machine continued firing.

Judging that the barrage of concentrated fire had gone on for a sufficient amount of time, Max quieted the guns and waited to see Gabara's condition. All was quiet for a moment as the smoke started to clear, but it wasn't long before Gabara's distinctive wail was heard. The ogre emerged from the smoke unscathed with an expression that almost looked like a savage grin.

Max immediately resumed firing Moguera's weapons, only this time, instead of striking the other monster, they passed through him. The robot fired again and again, with the same results. The treads on Moguera's feet activated and began moving the robot back while it fired at Gabara, hoping to get in a hit, but the energy kept passing through the kaiju.

Gabara suddenly sprinted forward to catch up with the retreating robot, tackling the oddly shaped robot to the ground. Sparks erupted from Moguera as its systems struggled to stay online. One of Moguera's arms jutted forward, trying to impale Gabara on the end of its cone-like hand. However, the metallic object simply passed through the other kaiju without doing damage.

What could almost be described as a nasty cackle issued forth from Gabara as he realized that Moguera was out of tricks. That last swipe had been made out of desperation. The green ogre reached back and plunged both of his clawed hands into the chest plate of Moguera. However, instead of meeting resistance against the hard metal, Gabara's hands phased right through. Gabara laughed once more before unleashing a powerful electrical current inside of Moguera.

White electricity played over Moguera's surface as parts of the great robot began erupting in small explosions. Sparks and smoke spilled out of the crevasses of Moguera as the electrical damage played havoc with its internal circuits. Finally, in one massive explosion that leveled any standing structure that was nearby, Moguera was blasted apart by its own incendiary nature, sending shrapnel flying everywhere.

Gabara emerged from the inferno unharmed. Now that his little diversion was over with, he could proceed to killing his intended target: Arashi.

As his screens turned to static one-by-one, Max banged his fist against a nearby console in anger. "Not again! No, I won't let another monster take innocent lives!"

But the screens continued to hiss back at him, as if mocking his futile attempts to revive a destroyed machine.

He leaned back in his chair in defeat. "I hate this," he all but whispered to no one in particular. "I hate being so helpless."

With a sigh, he calmed down a bit and pulled out his wallet and a picture of Saeko. "At least you're okay. You picked a hell of a day to go shopping. I hope your dad makes it through."

Putting the wallet away, Max sprang out of his chair, took out his cell phone, and dialed Saeko's number. When he didn't get an answer, he rushed out of the room towards the nearest vehicle.

_"You better be okay," _he privately amended as he tried to ignore his growing fear.

Hikaru was at his terminal, trying every trick he knew to speed along the transfer of information to Arashi's brain. Whatever was out there had no doubt come here to attack Arashi, he could think of nothing else on the base that would interest a kaiju.

The groan of metal caused Hikaru to look up in horror to see two enormous green hands slowly prying apart the blast doors that covered the converted missile silo. Inch by inch the doors gave way to the strength of the creature on the other side and that's when Hikaru finally saw the source of all the trouble. A pugish, fang-filled face filled the opening with a terrible caterwaul that almost sounded like laughter.

"Gabara!" Hikaru said in astonishment as Varnbel's cryptic words earlier in the day came back to haunt him.

With a malevolent cackle, Gabara reached in, grabbed Arashi by the head with both hands, and unleashed his electrical discharge. The energy surged over Arashi's body, crackling and popping as it played over the dragon's blue scales. The synthetic embryonic fluid acted as a conductor, increasing the power of Gabara's attack.

However, it did more than that, the excess energy that danced off of Arashi's body played havoc with the nearby electronic systems, feeding through the wires that had connected Arashi's head to the education program that Hikaru had been installing.

Hikaru was forced to get down on the floor and cover his head as lights and monitors blew out from the feedback surge. All the while he cursed Varnbel's name for unleashing such misery upon the world. Not just for Gabara, but also now for Arashi. The same blood that ran through King Ghidorah's evil body was essentially the same within Arashi's. Even if the Shobijin had lessened it by a degree, a portion of it would always remain.

Hikaru knew that his creation had enough of a brain to survive on his own, but now that the transfer of his more benign mindset was irrevocably canceled, what would be the effect? As much as he hated to admit it, he wanted Gabara to kill Arashi now. Otherwise Hikaru would be responsible for creating another evil monster. There would be no way to control Arashi if he were to escape from Gabara's attack or somehow beat the other kaiju.

A low growl suddenly filled the converted missile silo and ran right through Hikaru's body. In the darkened monitor room, a reddish glow suddenly lit up the area. Hikaru looked up from his crouched position and saw with an odd mixture of glee and horror that the blue dragon's eyes were open. For one terrible moment, the glowing red irises focused on Hikaru before they turned upwards towards Gabara.

Arashi had been awakened.

Saeko was eating a hamburger at a local restaurant when all of the sudden that all too familiar and terrible cold chill rushed through her body. She gasped in astonishment and dropped her food quite by reflex. The chill stayed with her and didn't vanish as it had when she had first touched the pendant.

She clutched the pendant of Ghidorah, ready to take it off, but as soon as her hand grasped the object, an image filled her mind. There was a terrible green ogre laughing at her. All she could feel was rage, a terrible consuming rage, and a need to destroy everything in sight, starting with the grinning fool before her.

_"No, it couldn't be,"_ she thought with realization, but her voice sounded distant and weak. _"I'm seeing this through Arashi's eyes. He's fighting something right now."_

As she thought that, she could sense that Arashi was aware of her too. The idea that someone was in his mind angered him greatly.

Saeko yelled out as Arashi's rage washed over her like a turbulent ocean. It was too much for her mind to bear and she felt herself slipping into blackness as she lost consciousness.

Thousands of miles away, safe in the M-Watch control center, Nassel felt his heart sink as he watched Moguera's completely ineffective attack and subsequent destruction. "All of that time and money… wasted in less than fifteen minutes. The Pentagon is going to have my ass on a platter!"

Growling in anger, he looked to Diamr. "Explain this to me, Professor. Why is it we saw the tank shells bounce off of Gabara's skin, and even saw Moguera get in a few hits, before it all started passing through him?"

"As I said earlier, Gabara is not based in the physical world," Diamr explained. "He cannot be hurt by physical weapons, because he is, in essence, just a mental picture that Varnbel has somehow managed to get to interact with the real world. In order to get Gabara to fade, so that objects would pass through him, all Varnbel has to do is lessen his concentration. I imagine Varnbel is still testing the limits of his creation."

"Then how the hell are we supposed to beat something like that?" Nassel wondered as he watched Gabara pry open the missile silo doors. "More importantly, why didn't we take advantage of such an innovative idea?"

"With all due respect, General," Diamr said. "It would have taken us untold years to get to the technological level that would be required to create Gabara, that is why I vetoed it. You wanted a monster created in the fastest amount of time possible. How Varnbel has managed it, I can't imagine."

Nassel scratched his chin with a bit of worry. "I think I know. Things have been set up too perfectly. We're under invasion, Professor. This is the work of aliens, it has to be."

"But there hasn't been any sign of alien craft since the Kilaaks," Onder spoke up. "And we've heard no demands or anything. How can you be sure that aliens are behind this, sir?"

"We've had too much disappear on us and had too much go wrong for me to believe that it's all coincidence," Nassel explained. "Whatever alien race that is behind this is taking their time attacking us, picking us apart piece-by-piece. Mark my words, we'll hear from them once they think they have us beat."

Unexpectedly Gabara was hit by an electric blue bolt coming from within the missile silo. The ogre fell back as another creature emerged from the silo, looking for all the world like a massive blue dragon. With a crackling roar, the dragon stretched his wings so that they reached their full span before the creature lifted off from the ground. The powerful winds that resulted blew the desert sands everywhere, obscuring Gabara in an impromptu sandstorm.

"That would be Arashi, I assume," Nassel guessed.

Diamr nodded. "That's him, alright."

"Well, I hope to God that Chen's creation can do better against Gabara than Moguera."


	6. Decisive Strikes

**Chapter Four:** Decisive Strikes

The massive blue dragon circled around Gabara with powerful strokes of his wings, roaring a challenge to his opponent watching him on the ground. Gabara answered back with his distinctive caterwaul, daring Arashi to come back down on the ground.

Arashi was not to be goaded so easily. He opened his mouth, unleashing a salvo of electric blue bolts. The first struck Gabara, knocking him back, but the others passed right through the monster to tear up large chunks of rock as they struck the ground. Undeterred, Arashi fired another salvo, only to have the bolts pass through Gabara again with the same results.

Arashi stopped his attack but continued to circle Gabara, studying his opponent intently. The great dragon's intelligence was not as primitive as his saurian likeness would lead one to believe, thanks largely to Chen's programming. He could still feel a powerful urge in the back of his mind to destroy, but Arashi had already figured out that physical attacks were not working. There had to be another way to kill his opponent.

And that was when he felt it, an odd vibration in the air that did not seem to belong. He narrowed his red eyes and searched for the source of this odd disturbance. Now that he could feel it, Arashi also noticed that Gabara seemed to be giving off the same aura. The dragon's intelligence quickly put the two together and flew away from Gabara in the direction of the strange vibrations with a defiant screech.

He didn't have to go far before he found his target, a small truck parked out in the middle of nowhere. Arashi swooped down and snatched the truck in one massive taloned hand. Then, with a backpeddle of his wings, he slowed his flight and landed with a loud thump on the desert floor.

Being careful not to crush the truck, Arashi peered down at it, trying to learn exactly how this thing and his foe were related. A challenging warble from Gabara made Arashi crane his neck to look behind him. The dragon hissed in answer and watched as the ogre ran to cover the distance between the two, quite obviously eager to continue the fight.

In one quick movement, Arashi's talons abruptly closed over the truck and crushed it effortlessly. The resulting explosion from the vehicle was barely felt through his thick scales. With a near human-like gesture, Arashi shook his hand and flung the pieces of flaming wreckage into the desert.

Gabara's running stride was put to a sudden halt as the kaiju cried in pain and disappointment. He managed to take one last step before he fell to the ground and faded into nothingness.

Arashi felt a sense of animalistic pleasure at seeing Gabara fall and roared his delight. A part of his mind told him that such an emotion was wrong, but his other side, the side that he had inherited from King Ghidorah, was pleased with what he had done.

And the voice of Ghidorah was hard to ignore…

Sean Varnbel was not sure what had happened. The dragon had come from out of nowhere and grabbed his truck. His only hope had been for Gabara to close the distance and save him from Arashi. That, however, was not to be as his body was suddenly smashed into mush and incinerated all in the same instant.

But he did not die.

As his body was crushed, Varnbel felt a tremendous force rip his mind from his body.

The next thing he knew, his very essence was absorbed by Gabara in a last-ditch attempt to stay in the physical world.

However, without his body, Varnbel could not help out his monster and, now combined into one, they faded into the nether.

Within the endless dark, Varnbel waited with Gabara. He was not worried. The Demions had his schematics, with luck they would build another helmet to summon Gabara again.

Then they could have revenge.

The fog that surrounded Monster Island was not a natural phenomenon, it was in fact a barrier that had been generated by hidden Demion saucers to keep Godzilla and the other monsters on the island, and to keep the outside world out.

Any kaiju attempting to come to the rescue of the Humans had been transported back thanks to the Xian capture technology. Any force attempting entry was blasted by Demion lasers. However, the need for the mist was at an end. It was time to let Godzilla loose upon the world.

Judging by the number of times the King of Monsters had tried to leave the island recently, he was eager to wreak havoc once more.

His enemy defeated, and with no distractions to get in the way, Arashi listened to the darker part of himself. It was a powerful desire to destroy, overriding the nobler intentions that Chen had tried to install. It was not a senseless desire either, it was directed at one target in particular.

It was aimed at the one thing that had beaten his forbearer many times.

Godzilla.

He could feel his father's old enemy moving towards the land known as Japan.

With a snarl of rage, Arashi spread his wings and took to the air once more, bound for Japan.

_Skull Island._

A rocky grain of sand on the sea, surrounded in perpetual fog. There weren't many, even in this day and age of satellites and radar, who knew where the island existed. Many modern day maps still did not have the small island included on their surface.

During the 1930's, after Kong had first appeared in New York, many hopeful fortune seekers and paleontologists had sought out the island in the hopes of finding another like Kong or the dinosaurs rumored to exist there. Few ever found it, even fewer returned alive, and at that, all empty handed and vowing never to return.

After the appearance of Godzilla, the subsequent kaiju that would showed up afterward, and the formation of Monster Island, Skull Island would soon be all but forgotten. It was a fate somewhat befitting of an island that gave up its secrets grudgingly and with a high price of blood. Even the Kilaaks, for all their power, could not find Kong's kingdom in time for their invasion. The Demions had fared no better.

There was an air of mystery and mysticism that hung like an aura on the island, almost daring some other foolish being to step on its shores…

Megalon had spent the months subsequent to the destruction of Seatopia following every lead that his Demion masters gave him. They were searching for an egg that was supposed to contain incredible power; the power to burn the world. Because of the terrible power of the egg, Mothra had long ago hidden it to keep it out of dangerous hands.

Many a location had been theorized to contain the egg and Megalon had searched them all with no luck. The last location had been Skull Island and there the Demions had been no help in providing a location. It was only through Megalon's connection with the Earth that he was able to discover the small island.

He emerged from one of his underground tunnels and onto the rocky shores of King Kong's home eagerly. This was the last place where the egg could possibly be. Once he found it, the Demions would fulfill his wishes.

Megalon walked near the coastline, looking for the rocky outcropping that was supposed to contain his goal. A distant howl let Megalon know that King Kong was awake and a second let the beetle kaiju know that Kong was aware of his intrusion.

With a squeal, he quickened his pace, not eager to fight someone as tenacious and unrelenting as Kong, not when he was so close to fulfilling his long task. And that's when he spotted it, a large rock outcropping that matched the image the Demions had sent to his brain. Age had weathered it slightly, but otherwise it matched perfectly.

The only problem was that it wasn't on the actual island, but a small atoll on the fringes of the deep sea.

Megalon leaped into the salty water with an eager sprint. The water did not look deep enough to require flying over. Another howl from Kong, louder this time, also served to remind Megalon that time was of the essence.

He had almost reached the shore of the atoll when something grabbed his leg in a powerful grip from under the water. Megalon squealed in surprise and tried to find some purchase on land by jamming one of his dagger-like hands into the rocky ground. It did little to help, whatever had a hold on him was determined to send him to a watery grave. Megalon's stop-gap maneuver forced his unknown attacker to grip his other leg with another powerful grasp and pull.

As desperately as Megalon tried to remain on land, he did not have the right appendages to grab a hold of something. With an eruption of dirt and rock, Megalon's claws came free from the ground and the kaiju was pulled under.

Being underwater was not foreign to Megalon, having served Seatopia for ages, but it was not his preferred environment to battle in either. As the water enveloped him, Megalon finally got a good look at his foe, it was the giant red crustacean, Ebirah.

Ebirah gave a triumphant shriek as he applied more pressure with his powerful claws, threatening to clip Megalon's feet right off. Twisting his body towards his foe, Megalon slashed out at the joint that connected Ebirah's claws to the rest of his body. Megalon's spade-like hands, sharp enough to cut through solid rock, easily sliced through Ebirah's thick shell.

The giant crustacean cried out in pain and let go of Megalon's other foot before retreating out of melee range. Seizing the opportunity, Megalon burst out of the water and into the air. Ebirah followed moments later with a shrill cry and a boulder clasped in his remaining claw.

With uncanny aim, Ebirah hurled the boulder at Megalon. The rocky projectile would have made contact, but Megalon blasted the rock into pieces by firing a bolt from his lightning horn. Then, before Ebirah could sink back under the water, the kaiju in the air fired his napalm bombs.

The red spheres burst into flame as they struck Ebriah's body. Too hot to be fully doused by the splashing water, Ebirah's shell started to warp from the intense heat. With a screech of anguish, the water-dwelling monster dove back under the waves to try and escape from the pain that been inflicted on him.

Megalon uttered a delighted screech and put both of his hands together to finish off his opponent once and for all. With his front appendages whirling like a drill, the gigantic beetle dove back into the drink. The water gave Megalon only token resistance as he sped through it like a torpedo.

Ebirah was not fast enough to get away from Megalon's diving attack. The drill bit tore through the crustacean's shell as if it were paper, breaking the kaiju in two. Ebirah's upper half, too much in shock to even feel the pain, struggled pitifully to drag itself across the seafloor with it's one good claw, still trying to get away. However, that sad scene did not last long as the life quickly left Ebirah's body.

Megalon rubbed his dagger-like hands together in victory, as if he was sharpening two knives, before emerging from the water again. He stepped back onto the atoll to claim his prize, forming his drill once again to burrow through the rock outcropping. He didn't have to dig far before the entire thing fell apart in pieces, revealing a gigantic black egg splotched with brown spots.

A nasty bellow announced Kong's presence on the shoreline of Skull Island. The enormous ape beat his chest in a loud thumping noise to convey his dominance before stepping into the waters of the ocean and making his way towards this intruder to his kingdom.

Megalon stood his ground, protectively putting himself between the egg and Kong. With a squeal to match Kong's challenging roar, Megalon fired off some shots from his lightning horn to try and discourage Kong from advancing. The bolts sizzled through the water, sending up great fountains of water as Megalon tracked his shots towards the giant ape. A few bolts struck home, sending Kong reeling backwards. In the water, Kong did not have the agility he did on land and was unable to dodge in time.

An ominous buzzing announced yet another participant in the fight on Skull Island; a swarm of Kamacuras. The cloud of monstrous insects split without apparent signal, half of them veering towards the egg and the other half taking up the fight with Kong.

The portion of the swarm that veered towards the egg worked together to lift the giant object into the sky and carry it off. Through the telepathic link the Demions had established with him, Megalon knew that these other insects were here to help. He watched the other Kamacuras fight a losing battle with Kong for a moment before turning and taking to the air.

The egg would need to be protected and Megalon knew exactly where it was going.


	7. Monsters in the Mix

**Chapter Five: **Monsters in the Mix

Tracking Arashi's progress over the United States was painfully easy to do. Any significant manmade structure that happened to be below the great dragon was instantly destroyed by a blast of Arashi's energy bolt, or just blown over by the hurricane winds generated by his massive wings.

Arashi was making steady progress towards the Pacific Ocean, although it wasn't known for sure yet where exactly he was going. There were some jokes being spoken in the M-Watch control room, albeit quietly, that Arashi was headed towards Japan. No one was willing to concede that yet, perhaps relying on some distant hope that their Eastern counterparts would be spared a kaiju attack this time.

It was a hope that was growing increasingly dimmer as they plotted Arashi's possible courses. The closer the dragon got to the ocean, the more likely it seemed he was heading towards the kaiju stomping grounds that were Japan.

And then things got worse…

"Sir, the mist around Monster Island has vanished! We've got a heat signature off of Ogasawara that seems to indicate that Godzilla is also heading for Japan!" Onder reported.

"He's going to fight Arashi," Nassel figured with a bit of relief. If there was anything that could stop Arashi, it would be Godzilla. It took them long enough, but the good kaiju were finally going to start pulling their weight.

"I don't think so, sir," Onder said a bit hesitantly.

Nassel frowned as he looked at his subordinate. "What do you mean?"

"Historically, Godzilla has only shown up after an invading kaiju has made a mess of a city," Onder told him. "In fact, unless something changes, Godzilla will easily make it to Japan before Arashi."

Nassel scratched his chin thoughtfully. "So, has Godzilla quit being a protector?"

"Impossible to tell. He might know something we don't," Onder answered. "Regardless, he'll definitely reach Japan before Arashi does."

Nassel did not like the feeling he was getting. As if Gabara had been a signal, the kaiju attacks were starting up again. "Send General Sogowa a warning, just in case he doesn't know about Godzilla already. One thing we can't do is allow two monsters to attack Japan at the same time, especially if we're responsible for one of them."

Nassel looked at the monitor that was displaying a real-time view of Arashi's position. The monster was currently over Los Angeles and still making a line towards the Pacific and presumably Japan. An evacuation order had already been sent to the city, but with a population as large as the one that resided in L.A., there were bound to be casualties.

"I'm afraid there's nothing we can do, General," Professor Diamr spoke up. "Arashi was designed to be able to successfully battle all sorts of enemies."

"Arashi may not take serious damage from our weapons, but if we can draw him away, we can give the Japanese time to deal with Godzilla," Nassel said, looking at Diamr with a little disdain. "If we can get him up north, there's a chance we can force Arashi to go back into hibernation from the cold temperatures."

Diamr shook his head. "That's not what I mean, General. Arashi is equipped with a natural electromagnetic pulse and he's smart enough to know when to use it. Chen put it into Arashi's genetic make-up as a precaution against something like another Mechagodzilla showing up. Unless you've got enough vehicles shielded against EMP attack for your diversionary attack to work, all you'll be doing is sending good men to get butchered. No, I'm afraid we don't have the means to stop Arashi at the moment."

Nassel pounded the table in front of him in frustration before sighing heavily. "My order stands. We might stand a snowball's chance in hell, but if there's even a slim chance we can stop that kaiju, we have to take it. Standing by and doing nothing while Arashi snuffs out innocent lives is not an option."

Neither Diamr nor Onder had anything to say to that.

Saeko opened her eyes to find Max sitting next to her hospital bed, smiling. "Hey there. I heard you passed out in a burger joint. It took me forever to find out what happened to you. The doctors still don't know what caused it."

Saeko didn't smile back as she thought back to what had happened. "My pendant…"

"Your personal stuff is being held while the doctors take a look at you." Max's smiling face turned to worry. "I want you to behave and not cause any trouble while they do their work. I've got enough to worry about without having to add you to the mix."

She shook her head as she felt the strength returning to her body. "No, Max, my pendant," Saeko corrected him. "When I touched it, I could feel Arashi's mind. I saw what he saw."

Max frowned as he surprised Saeko by pulling out the object in question. "This thing let you see into Arashi's mind?"

"You rat!" she accused with a grin. "Why do you have it?"

"I don't entirely trust doctors, I'm sure more than a few of them have sticky fingers. The last thing I wanted was for you to 'lose' your anniversary gift so soon after I gave it to you." Max looked at the pendant before slowly touching it, but he just shrugged. "I got nothing. You sure it was the pendant that let you see Arashi's mind?"

"Unless they slipped something strange into my burger, yes, I'm sure," Saeko came back sarcastically. "Let me see it."

Max kept a hold on it. "Baby, I don't know if I want to do that. Last I heard, Arashi was rearranging parts of California. If contact with his mind nearly made you slip into a coma, why would I risk letting the same thing happen again?"

"Because as soon as I get out of this bed, I'll take it from you by force, even if I have to beat you to a pulp," Saeko said threateningly.

"I'm serous, Saeko."

"So am I, Max."

Max looked at her, weighing the alternatives before he sighed and opened his palm so Saeko could take the pendant. She grabbed the chain and held it before her as she eyed the visage of Ghidorah leering back at her.

"I knew there was something strange about this when you gave it to me. When I first touched it, I felt a cold chill hit my body," she said a little regretfully. "But I didn't want to say anything. I thought the first time was a fluke."

"You couldn't have known," Max tried to reassure her. "No one else ever mentioned feeling anything when they touched it."

"And yet I did feel something," Saeko replied, feeling a little nervous. "I was just unprepared last time, Max," she said to him, if only to reassure herself by hearing the words. "I don't know why this pendant is reacting only to me, but I can handle it now that I know what to expect."

Max didn't look like he believed her, but he knew better than to try and argue with her.

Tentatively, Saeko touched the pendant again. She felt the same chilling cold, but Arashi's mind didn't seem to be as strong this time. She quickly realized that it must have been because of distance. If what Max said was true, and Saeko had no reason to think it wasn't, Arashi's rampage was taking him further away from her. Still, even if the distance was weakening the connection, Arashi's mind was easy to read, he only had one guiding thought: KILL GODZILLA!

A little more confident about her ability to use the pendant, Saeko slipped it back over her neck. "We need to go to Japan. That's where Arashi is headed."

Max laughed at that. "And they call me irresponsible? You can't follow Arashi, that's a job for M-Watch or the military and last I checked, you weren't officially part of either." He turned a little more somber. "Besides, you've got other obligations. Last I heard, your father was on base when Gabara attacked. We should make sure he's alright before worrying about Arashi."

Saeko felt her face turn red at forgetting about her father. How many times had she subtly chastised him about working too much and never seeing her? When she first made contact with Arashi's mind, she had realized in the back of her mind that the Kaiju Defender Lab was under attack, and yet the fate of her father had never crossed her mind until Max had mentioned it. She was as bad as he was.

Max saw her grief and grabbed her hand lovingly. "Don't beat yourself up about it, Saeko. You've been through a lot. I'm sure your dad is fine."

However, despite his comforting words, Max's voice lacked conviction. They both knew that Hikaru Chen practically lived in that lab. It was entirely possible that he had been right in the thick of the fighting between Arashi and Gabara.

Saeko looked at Max grimly. "Let's find out."

Centaurus took a break from watching his all-seeing monitors to personally check on the progress of the latest phase in his master plan. Soon it would be time to attack again in earnest, all Centaurus was waiting for was his herald.

The powerful Demion marched out into the massive building that housed three of the most powerful robots ever conceived. All three robots were being swarmed over by Simeon technicians who were running diagnostics on the great machines in preparation for their activation. The green ape-like aliens had had their race subjugated by the Demions and now were helpless to do anything but serve their masters.

Every alien race who had attacked Earth had done so at the bidding of the Demions. The invasions, while all failures, had served to weaken the Earth's militaries and soften the defenses for the time that the Demions would again make their move. However, in a move so deliciously sadistic, that Centaurus couldn't help but grin every time he thought of it, the other alien races who failed to conquer Earth were given two choices, neither of which they were allowed to make; either they became slaves for the Demions or their race was wiped out in a complete and utter genocide.

The Simeons, Kilaaks, and Xians had all been deemed worthwhile enough to keep alive, however the aliens from Nebula M Spacehunter, along with assorted others, would never have the chance to fail the Demions again. Their races were annihilated, to both serve as a punishment and an example of the thin lifeline that was given to the more worthy races kept alive.

The Humans would be wiped out. They had resisted subjugation too many times to be allowed to live. When the Demions were forced to take a personal hand in an invasion, it meant that no one would be left alive when they were done…

Centaurus walked out onto massive catwalk that lay in front of the robots to meet up with another of his Demion brethren, Vulpecula.

Vulpecula was in charge of developing the kaiju that would be sent down to Earth and was an extremely intelligent Demion. He shared many of the same features as Centaurus, but his skin was a dark blue and he had two bat-like wings folded upon his back.

Once Vulpecula saw him, he snapped to attention before bowing, being careful to avoid eye contact the whole time. "My, Lord!"

Centaurus did not waste time with niceties. "What is the status on my ultimate weapons?"

Vulpecula did not look up as he spoke. "The cyborgs themselves are fully constructed, even the one built from the Earthling creature. Armaments still need to be loaded, but the Simeons are running the last of the checks now."

"Excellent," Centaurus grinned. "Events down on Earth are proceeding as planned. Our herald will soon be unleashed and then nothing will be able to stop us."

When Saeko and Max finally discovered what had happened to Hikaru Chen, it quickly became their worst fears realized. He had been severely injured during the fight between Gabara and Arashi. When trying to get to safety after Arashi had been awakened, the force from one of the dragon's energy bolts had buried the scientist under a pile of rubble.

Much of his body had been crushed by the falling debris, but he had surprised the rescue team that had found him by clinging stubbornly to life. Unfortunately, his body was so badly messed up that there was little that the medics could do for him.

When Saeko saw her father's battered form laying limp in a hospital bed, connected to machines to keep him alive, her heart seemed to shatter. "Oh no," she whispered as she felt her hands trembling. "It can't be…"

If Hikaru managed to hear her, or if it was just good timing, his eyes opened and he smiled. "Saeko…" he said weakly.

Max, who had been standing behind her, took that as his cue to leave. "I'll be just outside."

Saeko barely registered his leaving as she sat down next to her father. "Father…" she started, not quite sure what to say. "I… I'm here."

With a strength that surprised her, Hikaru grabbed her hand. "I'm so sorry I neglected you. I should have made time, I should have insisted, I should have..."

"It's okay," she assured him. "We can make time after you heal."

He shook his head. "It's too late for that. I'll be joining your mother and our ancestors soon. My desire to see you again has been the only thing keeping me alive. Now that I know you are okay, I can finally rest."

"Don't talk like that!" she said as she felt angry tears start to line her face. "I won't forgive you if you die on me! I won't! You have to live!"

"Saeko!" Hikaru said, surprising her as he raised his voice. "My body is crushed. It's taking all of my strength just to talk with you now. You must accept that I won't be around any longer."

He reached up and brushed a tear from her face, his expression softening. "Without any help from your father, you've managed to grow into a beautiful, intelligent, and strong woman. I am so proud of you."

"I know," Saeko said, hearing her voice tremble.

Hikaru's hand went limp and Saeko thought that the moment she had been dreading had come, but he spoke again, his voice full of regret. "I heard from the soldiers who brought me here that Arashi is rampaging. Everyone is calling him an evil monster, but it's not true, the blood of his father is corrupting his mind. He's good at heart, Saeko, I know he is, but he was awakened before it was time. You need to bring out the good in him that has been buried under Ghidorah's evil."

"Me?"

"Yes," Hikaru confirmed before he started coughing. When the fit subsided, his voice was noticeably weaker. "Everything makes sense to me now. You were able to feel Arashi's mind he woke up, weren't you?"

Saeko couldn't help but be surprised. "How did you know?"

"When you told me of the reaction you had when you first touched the pendant, I ended up thinking about it a lot. The reason no one else seemed to be affected by it… your strange intuitiveness… you have a psychic gift, Saeko. If I hadn't been so absorbed in my work, I might have seen it sooner. Touching the pendant lets you see Arashi's mind because he was made from Ghidorah. Consequently, you should also be able to see into Ghidorah's mind or anything else that spawns from him. You have to be very careful with that pendant from now on."

Saeko nodded, but couldn't find anything to say.

Hikaru smiled. "I know you can find Arashi's good side. Don't let them destroy him."

"I won't," she promised. "I'll show everyone you were right."

Hikaru smiled. "I love you, Saeko. I know you'll succeed."

And then he closed his eyes and the terrible sound of a flatline filled the room.

Saeko stared at her father's lifeless body and felt tears stream down her face unbidden. She wiped them away and tried to compose herself, there would be time enough for grieving later. She couldn't let herself breakdown now, not while she had a promise to keep.

She clutched the pendant of Ghidorah and felt Arashi's mind once more, she could feel his desire to kill and destroy. Could this monster really have a good side? Her father had been adamant about it, even though that same monster had ultimately ended up killing him. It couldn't just be a Frankenstein complex, he had never felt this way about Dorat-Ghidorah, of that Saeko was sure.

She resolved that she would find it if it was there. She would prove her father right.


	8. Godzilla versus Arashi

**Chapter Six:** Godzilla versus Arashi

_M-Watch Headquarters, Tokyo._

"Godzilla has just come ashore in Osaka!" Commander Izuka Obu reported, before adding with some disbelief. "He… He appears to be rampaging!"

General Kieska Sogowa, the counterpart to Douglas Nassel at the Japanese division of M-watch, looked to Obu with a grim face. This behavior wasn't like the Godzilla that had saved Japan on countless occasions. Was it possible Japan's private nightmare had finally been born again? "Any signs of another kaiju in the area?"

"We haven't been getting any reports of giant monster attacks anywhere near that area," Obu said, checking his readouts. "Getting a visual now…"

The massive screen in front of the control center lit up with an image of Godzilla tearing a swatch of destruction through Osaka's industrial district. The image elicited a hushed gasp from the entire room, but it was not due to Godzilla's destructive behavior.

Sogowa set his mouth into a grim line. "Godzilla has mutated again."

It wasn't unusual for Godzilla to mutate, in fact it had been a fairly regular process ever since his first attack on Tokyo. He had gone from a great destroyer to a defender of humanity over those years, gaining a softer, and almost human look about him. However, what was on the screen now did not resemble the protector of Japan that the people knew and loved.

He looked much as he did in the fifties. His ears were now visible again. His fourth toe, which had somehow vanished from his feet during one of his mutations, was now back. His teeth now appeared to have a double row, although it was tough to tell from the screen. His tail was longer and looked much more sinuous and his body looked a lot more muscular. Overall, he just had a far more malevolent look about him.

"Why would Godzilla mutate into something to fearsome?" Obu wondered aloud, speaking what everyone else was thinking.

"I don't know," Sogowa answered gruffly. "But we can't allow him to tear up Japan. Have the SDF mobilize a battalion of masers and ULT tanks to that area. Once we drive Godzilla back out to sea, we can see about figuring out what is affecting him. In the meantime give the evacuation order to all of Osaka and the surrounding area."

_Infant Island._

It was a diseased chunk of rock that ironically housed the great kaiju defender of the Earth, Mothra. Humans, in their arrogance to achieve more power, had irradiated the land during one of their nuclear bomb tests and had yet to try and clean their mistake. It was only though Mothra's power that anything still lived on the island.

It was a bit of a cruel joke that the home of Earth's guardian was treated so poorly.

However, thanks to Mothra's power, the land was steadily cleansing itself. The tribe of humans that worshipped Mothra and the other animal inhabitants of Infant were free of radiation poisoning, although the soil was still far too contaminated for many plants to grow. It was estimated that in another ten years, at its current rate of decontamination, Infant Island would be completely free of any radioactive taint; a truly remarkable feat.

The state of the land wasn't the most pressing concern today though, for Ghidorah's son had finally awakened and was quickly following in his father's footsteps. In addition, Godzilla had finally come out of reclusion. Mothra had seen this day coming for a long time and knew she had to be ready for it. That was why she hadn't moved when she sensed the trouble in Africa. Between Godzilla and Arashi, theirs was a far greater threat if left unchecked.

She was fully prepared for it and was ready to give her life, if need be, to awaken Arashi to the side of good that resided within him. Hopefully she would have enough strength leftover to stop Godzilla as well.

Just in case, an enormous egg rested serenely on the temple grounds that the islanders used for their ceremonies. It was insurance that if Mothra should die in this dangerous encounter, her legacy would continue to live on, as was her usual cycle of death and rebirth.

With a chirp of reassurance to her Shobijin, Mothra flapped her enormous wings and lifted off, bound for Japan.

However, the twin priestesses of Mothra were not planning to stay behind. As was Mothra's wish, they too would be heading for Japan, only they were headed for the human known as Kieska Sogowa.

Chanting a small spell in unison, they waited as Fairy Mothra appeared before them in a flash of light. Fairy Mothra twittered with a bit of anticipation as she landed and waited for the Shobijin to climb up before taking off as well.

"We have a report from the Americans," Obu said as he listened to his earpiece. "A new kaiju is headed for Japan."

"Kong perhaps?" Sogowa asked hopefully. He had serious doubts that the masers and ULT tanks would stop Godzilla. Kong had proved that he could hold his own against Godzilla in the past and would be invaluable in stopping Godzilla now.

Obu frowned as he answered. "No. Apparently this is one that they were developing to fight other kaiju, but they lost control of it. They call it…" Obu paused, a little surprised to hear a monster from America with a Japanese name. "They call it Arashi."

Sogowa nodded. The Japanese government had been ardently opposed to the kaiju project and had refused to start up their own program. They had feared that it would only lead to another problem. Japan, they had summarized somewhat humorlessly, already had more than their share of kaiju to deal with. From what Obu was telling him, they had been right to turn down the idea.

"We have him on radar now," Obu reported. "It seems Arashi is headed straight for Osaka."

Sogowa had been expecting that answer somehow. "He's going to fight Godzilla."

Obu, appearing to read Sogowa's line of thought, asked the relevant question. "Who do we side with, sir?"

Godzilla was the answer Sogowa wanted to give, but as he looked back to the screen showing Godzilla leveling Osaka, he wasn't so sure. "Neither," he finally said. "I want those maser tanks to form a perimeter around Osaka, but they are not to engage unless threatened by Godzilla or Arashi. Scramble our attack helicopters and launch the Super-X, but give them the same orders as the tanks."

Obu saluted before moving to carry out Sogowa's orders.

Sogowa just kept his eyes glued to the monitor showing Godzilla on his current tear of destruction. Before it was all over, he had a feeling that Osaka would be nothing but rubble.

After two months of peace for Japan, they had been attacked again, only this time from an unexpected quarter.

Godzilla unleashed a stream of blue fire from his mouth to incinerate a block of chemical refineries. The buildings erupted into a brilliant fireball that spread from the source to rain upon other areas and set them ablaze.

A small part of Godzilla's brain was telling him to stop and return to Monster Island, but he wasn't about to listen. For too long he had been kept off of his ancestral lands and forced by the diminutive inhabitants to live on that small piece of rock. He would not be denied any longer!

Rage fueled Godzilla's increasingly feral intelligence now, rage from how the Humans had mutated him with the atomic bomb and rage from losing his only son. He had tried to fight it at first, but now he realized that it was high time to assert who was the dominant species here.

A distant cry carried across the air and reached Godzilla's ears, a kind of crackling roar. He turned his head to peer in that direction and saw a massive winged shape flying in his direction. Turning to face this new opponent, Godzilla bellowed a challenge.

He was answered immediately by the blue dragon who quickly covered the distance to land in front of him. For a moment, the two sized each other up. This newcomer was taller than Godzilla, and his scent… it was familiar.

He snarled as he realized where the smell had originated, this winged foe smelled almost exactly like Ghidorah. Whoever it was, it had chosen a fatal moment to try and challenge him now. Godzilla was not in the mood to hold back.

Arashi felt his own anger increase upon seeing Godzilla. The charcoal-skinned behemoth looked different from the images that Arashi knew of. He had feral memories of this foe from King Ghidorah and more recently, the man who had created him, Chen. However, while he looked different, there was no denying that this was the genuine article. The smell of ocean and ozone was just as he 'remembered' it to be.

Godzilla sounded out his distinct fog-horn call before charging towards him, apparently as eager to fight as Arashi. Arashi met Godzilla's challenge and charged as well, baring his talons to dig into Godzilla's flesh.

Godzilla's claws racked across Arashi's neck, scratching the blue scales but failing to penetrate the genetically reinforced hide. Arashi's claws ripped long gashes into Godzilla's chest, but the damage was healed almost as soon as he penetrated the skin. Arashi narrowed his eyes as his intelligent brain struggled to work through the fog of Ghidorah's rage. The flesh was regenerating, albeit faster than expected, but there was no doubt now that this was indeed the real Godzilla.

They continued to grapple, but neither monster was doing any real damage from the melee attacks. Godzilla, for all his power, could not penetrate Arashi's scaled armor and Arashi, for all his rage, could do no lasting damage against Godzilla.

With a swoop of his enormous wings, Arashi pushed himself away from Godzilla and landed a little distance away, involuntarily sending massive gusts of wind through the city and sending debris flying in the process. He cocked his head as he tried studying the other, struggling to hold back the urge to continue the attack; still self aware enough to know that something different was needed. His regular claws were not working; perhaps it was time to go a step further.

With a crackle of electricity that emanated from his spines and played over his body, Arashi concentrated the energy onto the tips of his talons so they glowed white hot. Godzilla watched it curiously, but did not linger too long on the show and charged forward again.

Arashi swept his claws across Godzilla's hide once more, only this time he did far more damage. His glowing claws ripped through Godzilla's hide without resistance, sending pieces of skin and red blood flying onto the ruined city of Osaka. Godzilla reeled back from the unexpected and piercing pain. His wounds were a bit slower to heal now as the lingering electricity from Arashi's attack interfered with the healing powers that Godzilla possessed. However, the crackling energy quickly dissipated and Godzilla was whole once more.

Finding success from the attack, Arashi summoned more energy to charge Godzilla once again.

Godzilla would not give him a chance.

He unleashed a powerful blast of his atomic ray, the blue fire striking Arashi nearly point blank. The sheer force of the blast lifted Arashi up into the air before gravity pulled him back down again with a powerful crash, The impact sent up a cloud of dust and debris, extinguishing the nearby fires.

Down but far from out, Arashi wrapped his sinuous tail around one of Godzilla's legs and yanked with all of his strength. Godzilla fell to the ground with a screech as he lost his balance. Quick to take advantage of his foe's moment of weakness, Arashi let go with his tail and took to the air.

Godzilla fired off a hasty shot with his atomic ray as he flailed to get up, but the beam went wide. Arashi, on the other hand, had time to aim and fire a few shots from his energy ray. The electric blue bolts struck home with devastating force, blowing portions of Godzilla's flesh off of his body as the leftover energy played havoc over the wounds, slowing their healing process. Aside from a yell of pain, the King of Monsters seemed largely unaffected as he responded in kind with a powerful blast that managed to hit Arashi's left wing and sent him reeling out of control into the city below, setting off another chain of explosions.

Undaunted, Arashi picked himself up and screeched his contempt for Godzilla in a roar so loud it could be heard over the booming explosions. He then lifted himself up into the sky with a mighty thrust of his wings, continuing to gain altitude until he was well into the clouds. He hovered there for a moment with a furious flapping of his wings as his sharp eyesight sighted Godzilla. Then, like a massive bird of prey, or the griffin of myth, he folded his wings and dove down towards Godzilla, claws outstretched and ready to use the force of the impact to do some serious bone-shattering damage to his land-based foe.

Godzilla, oddly enough, did not move as he watched Arashi dive towards him. Nor did he let loose with a shot of his atomic ray, instead he stood his ground and looked for all the world like he was ready to meet Arashi's insane charge.

With the speed of a rocket on reentry, Arashi lunged towards Godzilla, his sheer momentum ensuring him that nothing Godzilla could possibly do would save him. No atomic ray and no mere swipe of his claws would be powerful enough to deflect Arashi at this distance. He roared again in delight only to have his victory torn away from him in one shattered instant.

With a speed that far belied his size, Godzilla spun around exactly at the right moment when Arashi would have made contact and slammed into the dragon with a sideswipe of his powerful tail. The impact caused Arashi to cry in pain as the combined force of his descent and Godzilla's tail caught up with him all in an instant. It created a shockwave loud enough to level nearby buildings and the expelled force sent Arashi crashing into the ground at a breakneck speed.

The great dragon smashed through Osaka, reducing buildings to dust and plowing a massive furrow into the ground as he slid uncontrollably away from the point of impact, a victim of his own speed. Finally, friction played its part and brought Arashi to a rest as the explosions caused by his collision followed him and then enveloped him in a hellstorm of burning chemicals and other explosive elements.

There were not many kaiju who could take such a hit and get up immediately afterwards, but Arashi tried anyway. He lifted himself up with a shrill call of defiance and made his way out the flames, still looking to fight Godzilla. He managed to take a couple of steps before crying again in pain and collapsing. While it was not easy to see, Arashi had taken damage from that last attack, the spot where Godzilla's tail had made contact had shattered his thick scales there and a trickle of purple-colored blood seeped from the wound.

The mighty dragon's formidable armor was now compromised.

Arashi made a show of trying to get up before collapsing on the ground and laying still. He glared his wrath at Godzilla before his glowing blood-red eyes slowly closed and he let loose with fading growl.

Rumbling with what seemed like annoyance, Godzilla stomped his way over to Arashi's body to make sure that his foe was truly defeated. He stopped in front of the great blue dragon and tilted his head to the side as he looked over the still body for a moment, but Arashi did not make any move to defend himself, or at all for the matter. Satisfied that he could continue his march inward now that his foe appeared to be dead, Godzilla reared his head back and let loose with a victory bellow before turning to resume his rampage.

However, as soon as Godzilla's back was turned, Arashi's glowing red eyes snapped open and he surged forward with a howl of rage. Godzilla started to turn only to be impacted in the side by the maddened kaiju as Arashi ripped into Godzilla with the talons on his feet and hands and clamped his mouth into the side of Godzilla's neck. The weight of the great dragon slamming into Godzilla caused him to topple to the ground. Arashi did not pause as he continued raking Godzilla mercilessly with his superheated claws and kept a death grip on Godzilla's neck with his bite.

The area was quickly stained red as Godzilla's blood gushed out from Arashi's relentless attack. Blinded by pain and unable to recover as quickly due to the savagery of the dragon's attacks and the massive amounts of electricity that was being feed into his body and slowing down his regenerative abilities, Godzilla struggled to try and throw off his savage foe. However, Godzilla's desperate strikes were not nearly enough to dissuade Arashi.

Finally, with an enormous blast of energy that radiated out from Godzilla's body, Arashi was pushed back and sent flying before crashing a short distance away with a shriek. The nuclear pulse that had given Godzilla a second wind came as much a surprise to Godzilla as it did to Arashi, as he had never displayed that ability before. However, neither monster dwelled on it too long.

Arashi stood facing Godzilla, the radioactive monster's blood still dripping from his claws and his fangs. While Arashi was not radioactive himself, he had been created from a space-faring monster and as such had a high tolerance for radioactivity. In the depths of space, it was a constant fact of life.

While his improvised feint had indeed caught Godzilla off-guard, it hadn't been enough to kill him. Arashi licked some of the blood from his fangs before roaring a challenge and charging toward Godzilla with a movement of his wings to give himself added speed. Had Arashi been thinking clearer, and not been hindered by Ghidorah's evil, he might have stayed back and continued to pummel Godzilla with distance attacks. However, his mind was now too clouded with rage, even the ability to come up with another tactic like the feint was beyond his regressed mind now.

All he could think about was the kill.

Godzilla, the last of his wounds already healing, met Arashi's challenge with a loud bellow, ready to grapple once more. His opponent might have taken him off-guard last time, but Godzilla was ready for the attack this time.

Unconcerned for their own welfare, the two weakened monsters again joined in battle, determined that only one would emerge in victory...

Sogowa watched the vicious battle between the two titans with a mixture of awe and disgust. "What a monster! What were the Americans thinking when they created that thing? It's totally out of control!"

A bright flash of light caught the attention of everybody within the M-Watch control room. Sogowa turned to see that the Shobijin, riding Fairy Mothra, had made an appearance, somehow materializing out of nowhere. "The monster fighting Godzilla is Arashi, son to King Ghidorah," they said in unison. "Right now the evil of his father has corrupted Arashi and turned him into the beast you see in Osaka. Mothra is coming to try and break the curse of King Ghidorah's blood."

"Mothra?" Sogowa inquired with some worry. "But if she's caught in the middle of that battle she'll get killed!"

"The Earth is approaching a total apocalypse from an evil older than humanity itself," the Shobijin informed him sadly, obviously sharing Sogowa's concern. "We will need all the defenders we can muster to protect it. Arashi was created with care and with love by his creator and was meant to protect, but an evil spirit known as Gabara awakened him before his time. Now Arashi's mind is lost behind the malevolence that is a natural part of his family lineage."

"And what of Godzilla?" Sogowa asked, suddenly acutely aware of the fear he felt in the pit of his stomach. "Why is Godzilla attacking us? Why has he mutated into something so… evil?"

The Shobijin looked away in unison, as if ashamed. "Godzilla is also lost in rage. His son, Minya, was killed when he was recovering from his battle with Gigan. No one knew of the Kamacuras swarm until it was too late. Godzilla blames humanity for being too weak to protect itself and forcing him to leave his family to save you. He has decided that he is done serving humanity."

Sogowa leaned back in his chair, deep in thought. "I see."

Obu, hesitant to break into the conversation, cleared his throat. "The Super X has reached the perimeter at Osaka. What are your orders, General?"

Sogowa looked to Obu and tried to cover the indecisiveness he felt. He wasn't especially eager to attack Godzilla, especially after what the Shobijin had told him. There was also Arashi to factor into the decision as well. An attack by the army now could raise the ire of both monsters and likely spell a death sentence for the men stationed there. The Super X could probably deal with one of the monsters, but not both of them at once.

"Keep them in standby until the battle between Godzilla and Arashi has a winner." He felt dishonorable for what he had to say next, but the safety of Japan and its people rested in his hands. "Then attack who is left."

The Shobijin looked up, somehow appearing to see past the monitors. "Mothra has arrived."


	9. The Herald Appears

**Chapter Seven:** The Herald Appears

_Africa._

In the darkest heart of the wild continent, a new nation had been formed. Swarms of Meganura and Kamacuras protected it viciously from any intrusion. Assembled Human soldiers and military vehicles were placed at nearly all points of their border. However, they were of no concern to the giant insects, they would continue to guard the borders they had forged until told otherwise.

Their queen, Megaguirus, and her 'general,' Kumonga, had given the order to stay put for the moment. It would only be a matter of time before they were told to renew the attack. The Humans dared not attack them now, not anymore, for fear of riling up the swarm, so it was a stand-off of sorts.

Within the boundaries of this new insect African nation, deep within the very center of the swarm, rested the black egg that Megalon had recovered from Skull Island. The beetle-like kaiju stood guard over it, protected tenfold by Meganura and Kamacuras, as all waited for the time that it would finally hatch.

A burst of flame announced the unexpected arrival of the Demion, Sirius. He was one of many who was known to be a messenger to Centaurus. Although the malevolent being was dwarfed by the kaiju that surrounded him, there was no question that he was the one in charge.

The arrival of Sirius caused a commotion of screeches and cackles from the assembled insect guard. However, a single melodic screech from Megaguirus was all that was needed to quiet them.

Sirius paid no attention to any of it as he made his way to the black egg. Closing his eyes, he rested a single clawed hand on the surface. The egg began to glow a golden hue before sending a spark of energy lancing into Sirius. The Demion drew back with a snarl and rubbed his hand, now numbed from the shot.

He turned to address Megaguirus. "The seal of Mothra is still on the egg. Now that it is freed from its prison on Skull Island, all it should take to release your future king will be the death and rebirth of Mothra. That dynamic switching of energies should weaken the seal enough for him to escape. Events are already occurring that should accomplish this."

Sirius then turned to Megalon, who was watching everything patiently, if inquisitively. "You have done well so far, Megalon," he growled. "Centaurus is pleased. Your duty from now on will be to guard your new king, with your life if need be. He will be instrumental in the destruction of Earth. Then, once all on this planet are dead, we will give you the ability to travel through space."

Megalon clapped his metal hands together happily, eager to please his new masters in return for the gift they promised.

Sirius then looked back to Megaguirus. "Once the egg hatches, have Kumonga resume the offensive. We will make sure that any kaiju resistance you meet will be light to none."

Megaguirus shrieked an affirmative, allowing a sinister toothy grin to light her face. Waiting nearly a month until Centaurus gave the okay to resume the offensive had been trying her patience, she was eager to engage in battle once more.

With a nod, Sirius disappeared in another burst of flame, leaving the insect brood to ready for the arrival of their king...

A loud trill from above drew the attention of both Arashi and Godzilla. Each monster recognized the giant moth that circled above them as Mothra and neither one of them were too pleased to have their battle interrupted. With a furious flapping of wings, Mothra quickly zipped about in the air to avoid their energy blasts.

Talking was obviously out of the question.

Mothra chirped as she started shedding her scales, raining the reflective material down upon the two combatants. It was a new technique she had devised and the results were more than adequate. As the two saurians attempted to blast her out of the sky again, their own energy was refracted and sent back to them. Orange lightning arced down from Mothra's wings and continuously struck the two on the ground.

Mixed in with the scales was her poison powder. As their attempted strikes were refracted and sent back to them, Mothra's powder did its work. First Arashi, and then Godzilla, crashed to the ground in spasms as the powder affected their nervous systems.

Seizing her chance, because she knew it wouldn't last long, Mothra swooped down and landed next to Arashi. Her antennae became awash in a golden glow as she searched for the spark of good that she knew was within Hikaru Chen's creation. The wall of pure malice that greeted her was near identical to Ghidorah, except less focused. Ghidorah delighted in causing pain in death, but his carnage was always conscious and deliberate. With Arashi it was just a strong surge of unrestrained emotion without any kind of real guiding wickedness.

It took some digging, but Mothra finally spied Arashi's true mind, the mind that Chen had tried to create before the demon Gabara had interrupted everything. The glow around her antennae grew brighter and lines of energy could be seen moving along her wings as Mothra struggled to pull out the good and sweep away the bad.

She was making progress before she heard an infuriated bellow behind her. A moment later Mothra shrieked in pain as she was hit full on by a gout of Godzilla's fire. The charcoal behemoth had recovered and wanted to repay Mothra's meddling in full. He stepped forward menacingly and unleashed another blast at her, roaring his fury.

Mothra's shrill cry of pain could be heard echoing across Osaka as she lifted into the air again, her body smoldering from Godzilla's blasts. The prudent course would have been to retreat and recover, but she couldn't leave, not until she knew that she had gotten through to one of them.

Crimson beams of energy lanced out from her antennae at Godzilla, striking him, but doing no real damage. There was a chance she had reached Arashi, but she needed to lead Godzilla away from him to give Arashi time to get in the right frame of mind.

Godzilla wasn't about to make it easy for her, as he unleashed blast after blast of azure atomic fire at her. It was all Mothra could do to dodge the attacks, but at least she had his attention.

Mothra circled around Godzilla and started shedding a mix of scales and pollen to try and subdue Godzilla once more. After Godzilla's first failed attempt to fire his atomic ray, the King of Monsters did something she didn't expect. With a roar, a shockwave spread out from his body and knocked Mothra from the air.

She screeched as she landed on her back and wriggled around desperately to try and right herself. Godzilla bellowed as he pounded towards her before finally stepping on her wing to pin her down. At point blank range, he fired at her again, igniting Mothra's fur and burning her fragile body with a fire born from an atomic explosion.

Godzilla continued to advance upon her, shredding her wing as he moved closer to her body. Just as he was about slam his foot down and end her life, he was struck from behind and flew over her before crashing into a grouping of buildings with a howl, setting off another chain of explosions.

Mothra's blue eyes looked up to see Arashi hovering above her, flapping his great wings as he unleashed several shots of his energy bolt into the explosions, adding to the hellstorm and sending flaming debris in all directions. With a grunt he landed next to Mothra's head and looked down at her. Much to the giant insect's relief, the red fire in his eyes seemed to have dimmed and he looked more aware of his surroundings.

The pile of rubble that Godzilla had been buried in, exploded outward as the King of Monsters got back on his feet. Seeing Godzilla's spines start to glow blue, Arashi spread one of his wings over Mothra protectively and sent snaking lines of energy to follow the bones that gave the wing its shape.

A second later Godzilla fired his atomic ray once again, but instead of striking the flesh of the wing, the ray was stopped by a shield made of Arashi's own energy. Godzilla reared back in surprise before he was hit by several more energy bolts from Arashi and knocked back down to the ground with a thunderous crash.

Arashi took the opportunity to right Mothra back on her feet, before she twittered a plan of action to him. Godzilla was much more powerful now than he had been in the past, downing him would require extreme measures. Arashi glared at her, his red irises flashing at the thought of using help to defeat Godzilla, and for a moment Mothra was afraid that the blood of Ghidorah was reasserting itself, but after a slight delay he picked her up by the thorax and took off into the air with a rumble.

With her left wing shredded by Godzilla, she was unable to fly, so Arashi was carrying her underneath him so she could unleash one last attack. Mothra was suffering from burns all over her body and she knew it wouldn't be long before she was reborn. She would have to use the last of her lifeforce to attempt one of her most devastating attacks.

Her new ally flew in a circle above Godzilla as Mothra's body began to glow golden. A gold light drifted down and formed a wall, creating a hollow cylinder that touched the ground, enclosing Godzilla inside. The great spined saurian was back on his feet now and watching the new ability that Mothra was displaying with a tilt of his head.

As Mothra, with Arashi's help, repeated two more turns of the circle, a symbol appeared in the sky; the seal of Mothra. With a screech, a wall of light descended with lightning speed from the symbol in the sky and impacted the ground with devastating force, expelling all of its energy on anything unlucky enough to be within the cylinder.

Godzilla squealed as he was knocked to the ground. Everything was flattened around him and created an enormous cloud of dust that obscured the area. Undaunted by the ominous cloud of dust and debris, Arashi dove to the ground as he carefully set Mothra down before landing next to her. Then he used his great wings to clear the air by sending the dust away with the force of hurricane winds.

Godzilla was laying prone on the ground, unmoving aside from the telltale heaving of his lungs taking in air. Mothra chirped in relief, happy the seal had worked even though she had been unable to draw upon all the power she wanted with only one wing. The seal was much more than a purely physical attack, it was also spiritual in nature. While the energy damaged the body, the spiritual power sealed the soul. Godzilla would be out, not for long; a few hours to a day at best, but it had worked and that was what mattered most right now.

Mothra's moment of adulation was short-lived when she saw Arashi snarl and move towards the prone form of Godzilla. The spines along his back glowed white as he summoned more energy to his hand and superheated his claws. Arashi intended on finishing Godzilla when he was down. It appeared that even though she had gotten through to him, the blood of Ghidorah still ran hot within him. With a cry of alarm she pleaded with him to stop.

The blue dragon craned his neck and looked back at her in annoyance. Why shouldn't he finish off his enemy now that he had a chance?

And Mothra gave him the only answer she could… Dark times were in store for the Earth and it would need every kaiju that it could get on its side to pull through, especially Godzilla. Surely Arashi could feel his father, King Ghidorah, laying in wait not too far away, getting ready to attack? Once this battle was concluded, a war would take its place and it would encompass the entire globe.

Arashi growled, looking for all the world like he was going to carry through with his plan to kill Godzilla, but instead the electric energy drained out of his talons and gathered in his palm. With the electricity crackling in his hand, Arashi placed it on his side and let the energy feed into the most grievous wound that Godzilla had given him, mending his shattered scales.

He then lifted into the air again and grabbed Godzilla, carrying the unconscious combatant out to sea where he could recover in peace.

If Mothra had been capable of it, she would have smiled. Perhaps Hikaru Chen's creation really could be a benefit to the world instead of another destroyer. That was her last thought as the life faded from her ravaged body and the light disappeared from her blue multifaceted eyes.

Back on Infant Island, the green and yellow striped egg of Mothra cracked open to release the ugly brown caterpillar of her larval form. She chirped comfort to her loyal followers who bowed down in reverence as she extracted herself from the egg. It was a comfort she didn't entirely feel because she knew that this time her death would free the evil kaiju she had hoped to keep sealed forever.

She looked at the Shobijin regretfully who shared her worry. There was simply too much evil in the Earth's future for her to deal with it all. She had been forced to pick which battle she was going to fight and it had been decided that stopping Arashi and Godzilla from ripping each other apart would give the Earth the greatest chance to make it through the dark times ahead.

Mothra sincerely hoped she had made the right choice.

It was night in Africa, and the jungle was in the thrall of a terrible monsoon. The wind howled and the rain soaked everything it touched. Intermittent flashes of lightning lit the sky and loud claps of thunder seemed to tear the world in two. Undisturbed by the terrible weather, Megaguirus, along with her entourage, Kumonga and Megalon, kept a close eye on the egg before them. They had felt Mothra's power shift, it wouldn't be long before the king was free.

As if on cue, the black egg glowed gold for a moment, before the soft light shattered and evaporated into billions of particles. Mothra's seal was no more. Megaguirus cackled as she watched the egg begin to crack and shatter. An evil crimson light seeped out from the crevasses before the egg fell away completely to reveal a fearsome armored caterpillar.

The caterpillar was black from head to tail, with bright yellow markings to display in a language clear enough to all that he was not to be messed with. The spiky black armor culminated in a fearsome tusked head that resembled a samurai's helmet. A great yellow horn jutted from his head and two glowing red eyes pierced the darkness.

Battra gave an unearthly holler in triumph. At last his prison had been shattered! He could sow chaos and death once more!

Megaguirus screeched a greeting to her new king. She was not the type to bow to anyone, but she could feel the awesome power of Battra. He was everything the Demions had promised.

Battra took in the assembled forces before him with approval. Even though he had been unable to do anything while trapped in the egg, he had been aware of the happenings in the world around him. He commanded Megaguirus to resume the offensive against the humans immediately. He would join her soon, but first he had some unfinished business to take care of with his sister, Mothra.

Megaguirus screeched a command to the horde and took off, followed shortly after by Megalon and Kumonga as Battra crashed through the jungle towards Infant Island…

Centaurus laughed as he saw Battra emerge from the egg. The herald of the Demions had arrived at last. With Battra free the Earth was as good as dead. He clenched a clawed fist victoriously.

The time for the main invasion had arrived!

General Sogowa had no idea what the proper course of action was anymore. The Shobijin had disappeared soon after giving their warning about Arashi. He and his staff had witnessed Arashi attack Mothra before helping her to defeat Godzilla; the very same Godzilla who had become Japan's hero after numerous battles with evil kaiju. According to the word of the Shobijin, Ghidorah's son was the good guy and Godzilla was a menace again. His entire world had flipped around upon itself.

The satellite images had confirmed that Arashi had dropped Godzilla off into the ocean, but instead of disappearing to Monster Island or wherever kaiju went to rest, the dragon was heading back to Osaka. Now that Godzilla had been stopped, what reason could Arashi have for coming back?

Even with the considerable weight that the Shobijin carried, Sogowa didn't feel particularly inclined to trust this Arashi. After all, he was related to King Ghidorah was he not? Like father, like son, as the saying went.

"If Arashi moves beyond the damaged portion of Osaka, open fire," he ordered.

Sogowa had a terrible suspicion that Arashi had come back to finish what Godzilla started and he would not stand for it. It would end at Osaka!

Arashi landed back in the ruined city of Osaka wearily. The fight with Godzilla had drained him, more than he would like to admit. He needed to find somewhere to restore his strength. A power plant of some kind would be adequate.

He bypassed the dead form of Mothra as he looked for a power source. He could feel the telltale signature of a power plant beyond the still fiery ruins of industrial Osaka. Arashi looked to the sky with something akin to apprehension. Ghidorah was coming… he would need to be at full strength when they faced each other.

As soon as he stepped past the last crumbling buildings and into the untouched parts of the city, the masers and ULT tanks that Sogowa had positioned opened fire on him. The maser blasts were little more than pinches to him, but he could definitely feel the ULT tanks as they chilled his flesh to the bone.

Arashi snarled as he reeled back from the unexpected assault, more in outrage than any real pain. The Humans had dared to attack him! Did they not know their place? Even weakened as he was, he wasn't going to allow such a gross disrespect to stand unpunished!

And he wasn't in the mood to play around. The Humans would learn the futility of attacking him: the hard way. Gathering his energy, Arashi allowed it to explode outwards as an electromagnetic pulse. The EMP spread outwards from his body, consuming every military vehicle in the vicinity and shutting it down as it fried their electronic circuits. Nearby buildings suffered blackouts as the power sent to them was forcibly scrambled from Arashi's attack.

His red irises flashed as he looked upon the pathetic and so-called rulers of the planet. Humanity didn't deserve the lofty title they gave themselves. They were pests, no they were worse than pests, they were vermin, with no idea of how inferior they were in the natural order. He bared his teeth in a snarl. He would wipe them out.

Every single one.

The World Space Authority Moon base, the largest structure that humankind had ever managed to build off the planet was the first to witness the terrible image of Demion saucers uncloaking above them.

The alien vessels were thin and dagger shaped, with serrations in the side to add even more to their deadly image. The normal vessels were only a little larger than the other alien saucers that had attacked Earth in the past. However, among them was the mother ship which stretched the entire length and width of the moon base and then some.

The operators at the moon base barely had time to sound an alarm before the Demion saucers opened fire. Their powerful lasers easily cut through the heavily reinforced armor of the base, opening the inside to the vacuum of space and sending men floating out to suffer explosive decompression and suffocation.

It took the fleet of Demion saucers little more than a minute to completely eradicate the moon base and everyone who had been in it.

Meanwhile more Demion saucers uncloaked over the major capitals of the world and unleashed their monster payload. Gigan was sent to Washington D.C., Orga to Moscow, Hedorah showed up in Rome, King Ghidorah started razing London, and of course, Africa was already under siege by the insect horde.

Japan, the nation that had thwarted the majority of kaiju attacks, was the hardest to be hit. Tokyo was bombarded by no less than three attackers; the three special mechanical creations that Centaurus had ordered to be built. A new improved Mechagodzilla, a mechanical construct modeled after King Kong called Mecha-Kong, and Hikaru Chen's Dorat-Ghidorah rebuilt to become Mecha-King Ghidorah.

The apocalypse was at hand!

The K-41 was the absolute pinnacle of Human engineering. It made use of the advances forged from the P-1 and the Moonlight SY-3, not to mention converted technology from the recovered saucers of aliens who had tried to attack Earth in the past. It was without a doubt the fastest, toughest, and most advanced machine in the world. Many principle nations on the UN Security Council had more than a few K-41's stashed in secret hangars in case of another invasion or an equally serious problem.

The K-41 was capable of traveling in the air, under the water, or through space, and all at amazing speeds. The design resembled the Super-X in some ways and it was about the same size. It was a squat, ugly vessel, armored and reinforced in all areas. In addition to the usual compliment of missiles, the K-41 also boasted two upgraded masers and a highly advanced scanner array.

This particular K-41, the K-41-JU, was zipping across the Pacific towards Japan. Glenn Adams was at the controls, with Max taking a gunnery position. Saeko was onboard as a passenger and it was all she could do to sit still as she lived Arashi's battles through the pendant.

After Saeko had talked with her father for the last time, she had immediately told Max that they needed to go to Japan to stop Arashi. For once, he didn't try to persuade her otherwise. The look of determination in her eyes must have been evidence enough that she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Surprisingly, Glenn had been in the hospital as well, talking with some of the survivors to get their story about what had happened with Gabara and Arashi. After Saeko had summed up the events that had happened to her as well as her father's last words, Glenn had agreed to take her to Japan and had commandeered a K-41 with the considerable authority he had in M-Watch.

It was strange, but Saeko had a feeling that there was another reason why Glenn was going to Japan. She couldn't shake the idea that the former astronaut had been planning on going there even before he spoke with her and Max. The availability of a K-41 nearby when they needed it struck her as more than coincidence.

"How much longer before we get to Osaka?" she asked, feeling her heart sink as Arashi started to slaughter the troops who had attacked him. Mothra may have broken through the haze of Ghidorah's blood, but Arashi was still out of control.

"Ten minutes at the most," Glenn answered back, trying to sound every inch the confident flying ace he had been in his youth, but Saeko could detect a definite note of grimness in his tone.

"The hell?" Max swore as his communications screen broke into static. "We're getting a transmission and it's being forced over the M-Watch channels. There's nothing I can do to break through it."

Glenn's face turned dour as the static resolved into a terrifying face. The thing on the screen seemed to be armored in black bone and had skin as red as blood. Four black horns jutted from his head. Twin eyes of yellow fire glared out from his face. When it spoke, the voice carried a timbre of pure malevolence.

"I am Lord Centaurus of the Demion race," he identified himself. "We have come from across the stars with a simple demand for the people of Earth…"

Centaurus bared his needle-sharp teeth as he spoke one simple and terrifying word. "Die."

"Your moon base has been wiped out by our saucers and your major capitals are even now being ravaged by the most fearsome monsters in existence. Time and again we have given you Earthlings the chance to supplicate and be conquered by the alien races we have sent to this planet, but you have proven incontrovertibly that you will not bow down. Towards that end, you must be eradicated from existence!"

"It will not be a quick death either. We could quite easily level your cities with our saucers, but we wish to see your misery. Our monsters will slowly kill the world for us." The demonic alien grinned. "Be comforted by the fact that your deaths will have some meaning. Your slow and agonized suffering will amuse us to no end."

"Forget trying to reach us for surrender. This will be our only communication. As I sign off, our saucers will begin the process of destroying every satellite you have launched to further cripple what little hope you have. I have only bothered to announce our intentions so you would know who to curse as you take your dying breath."

Centaurus laughed malevolently as the image faded to static once again.

Saeko swallowed the fear she felt well up in her. This was bad, really bad. The Earth had been threatened by invasion before, but it had never reached the scale that the Demions were implying. To make matters worse, it was on the very day that her father had been killed by his own creation, which was at the very moment killing more people, and somehow she had to find a way to stop it.

It made her feel very alone. More so, because she knew it would only be a matter of time before Max went into combat against the aliens. If that happened, she might lose the last person in her life that she felt close to.

However, to her great surprise, Glenn merely laughed.

Both Saeko and Max looked at him curiously.

"Centaurus thinks he has us licked, but he's really underestimating us," he told them. "We've been preparing for this day. M-Watch knew it was only a matter of time before aliens knocked on our door again. Don't worry kids, it's not as bad as it looks."

"Not as bad as it looks!" Max objected. "We've got monsters razing our capitals and hostile alien saucers ready to blow us apart!"

"Okay, it's pretty bad," Glenn relented as he changed the heading of the K-41. "But we've got a secret weapon that I'll bet the Demions don't know about. In fact, I was planning on meeting with my buddy Fuji about it before I ran into you two. He can explain it better than I can."

"What about Arashi?" Saeko spoke up as she noticed they were veering away from Osaka. "I have to stop him!"

"Angel, we've got monsters rampaging all over the globe. One more isn't going to make much of a difference. The Demions are the greater threat right now," Glenn told her. "Arashi will have to wait."

"NO!" she protested, surprised at how vehement it came out. "I have to stop him, I promised my father I would do it!"

Glenn shook his head. "Nothing doing, kid. We've got to meet up with Fuji-"

"Dad," Max interrupted. "We'd better let her try. I've seen her in this kind of mood before." He looked over at Saeko knowingly. "You can't talk her out of it. She's either going to try and commandeer the K-41 or she's going to leave for Arashi as soon as we set down. Either way she's too stubborn to listen to reason."

Saeko didn't know whether to kiss Max or smack him, but she couldn't deny the truth of his words. Deep down she knew she should have been more worried about the Demions, but she couldn't get her mind off of Arashi. She wouldn't be satisfied until she at least tried to bring Arashi under control.

Glenn heaved a heavy sigh as he shook his head in resignation. "Fine, we'll do it your way. Arashi, here we come."


	10. Rampage!

**Chapter Eight: **Rampage!

The K-41 set down in a smoldering part of Osaka. Saeko had insisted that it would be safer if they left the craft. Safe being a relative term of course, it was still exceedingly dangerous to go on foot, but with Arashi's EMP no mechanical vehicle was safe from him, not even something as advanced as the K-41. It wouldn't do to get close to him only to crash and possibly be killed if Arashi decided to try and short out the K-41's systems.

As soon as they exited the craft, Saeko sprinted towards the sounds of battle with Max and Glenn hot on her heels. She clutched the pendant again, her mind immediately seeing what Arashi saw. The poor soldiers of M-Watch were in full retreat, having no recourse but to abandon their vessels and hoof it. However, Arashi wasn't about to let them get away. They would become examples to the rest of Humanity that he was to be respected and feared! No one attacked him and got away with it! He spied the deactivated from of the Super X, lying sideways in a pile of rubble, and prepared to blow the offending piece of machinery to shrapnel.

Saeko, knowing she would probably only have one shot to do this right, put as much command into her mental voice as she could before shouting with her thoughts, _"ARASHI, STOP! DON'T KILL THEM!"_

The unexpected intrusion into his mind was enough to startle Arashi out of his killing spree as he stopped and looked around for the source of the intrusion. He even surprised Saeko as he responded with a clear mental voice of his own. _"You again!" _he challenged. _"I thought I got rid of you!"_

_"You could remember everything you did, even while under the influence of Ghidorah?" _she asked, recalling that he had been lost in the madness of Ghidorah's blood the first time she had touched his mind. In any case, as long as she kept him talking to her, hopefully it would give the soldiers time to get away.

Arashi didn't bother to hide his pride. _"Of course I could. I'm not some primitive animal. It was like I was stuck in a dream."_

_"Don't you mean a nightmare?"_

_"Hardly," _Arashi shot back contemptuously. _"The only bad part was that I didn't have total control. I learned a lot before Gabara interrupted my learning, including how badly humans have messed up this planet. By all rights they should have been wiped out a long time ago. Killing them to me is like crushing ants to you."_

Through Arashi's mind's eye, Saeko could feel the mighty dragon take to the sky. A moment later she saw his huge form for herself over the top of some ruined buildings. She stopped her run but hesitated at the thought of hiding. She needed to gain Arashi's respect and the only thing she could think of was having the guts to face him. However, she motioned for Glenn and Max to take cover, just in case. Both men looked ready to object, but a glare from her sent them sprinting for hiding places.

_"Not all of humanity is bad," _she argued. _"In fact you owe your existence to us."_

_"So does the atomic bomb," _he countered. _"You humans seem obsessed with finding ways to destroy yourselves. Attacking me without provocation, as those fools did, is a great way to accomplish that."_ Saeko could see herself through Arashi's eyes and feel his smile as spotted her. _"There you are. I expected more than a little girl."_

_"Don't underestimate me!" _Saeko snapped, feeling her own anger rise, knowing full well that Arashi had little to fear from her.

_"Hmph, we'll see just how brave you really are," _he told her, sending a roar echoing across the sky before jetting towards her.

Upon seeing the massive form of Arashi coming at her, Saeko's first instinct was to run, she had even taken a few steps back before she caught herself. For better or worse, she wouldn't flee. She had to face Arashi.

Arashi landed a short distance away from her with a quake that nearly knocked Saeko off of her feet. He went down on all fours as he brought his reptilian face down to look at her. Saeko was drenched by Arashi's breath as the hot air from his breathing escaped from his nostrils. She could feel herself trembling as she looked into his red irises, but she resolutely stood her ground. She couldn't let herself be intimidated.

_"Impressive,"_ Arashi congratulated her. _"If you had moved, I would have killed you for being a hypocrite. Your bravery is foolish, but I can respect it."_

_"Thank you," _she said as she bowed in the traditional Japanese show of respect. _"Your power is incredible."_

Arashi ignored the flattery as he looked her over. _"Who are you?"_

Saeko's eyes widened. _"You don't know who I am?"_

She could feel Arashi's anger start to rise at was, to him, an inane question. _"I'm not telepathic and I really don't care enough about you humans to make distinctions."_

_"You do know who created you, don't you?"_

_"Hikaru Chen," _the kaiju answered swiftly. _"That was one of the first things he taught me. What does it have to do with you? Did he send you to bring me back?"_

_"He's dead," _Saeko said flatly, doing her best to hold her emotion in check. Breaking down in front of Arashi was probably not a good way to earn his respect. _"He was severely injured during your fight with Gabara and died soon after. I'm his daughter, Saeko Chen."_

_"What of it?" _Even though Arashi feigned disdain, Saeko could catch a hint of something else. Regret? Sorrow, perhaps?

_"Please, Arashi, you have to stop attacking the humans," _she implored._ "The Earth is under attack by aliens who want to wipe out all life. We need your help to drive them off. When my father created you, he intended for you to be a protector, not a destroyer. He loved you as he would a son." _Saeko did her best to hide her bitterness. _"He sacrificed everything to work on you and even on his death bed he couldn't think ill of you. Please, if for nothing else, help us in his memory."_

Arashi stared at her for a long time, before he finally growled deeply. _"I'll think about it as I rest up. You'll be coming with me. There is some more I wish to discuss with you."_

"What?" Saeko yelped out loud in shock as she saw one of Arashi's massive hands move forward to grab her. Before she could even think of trying to get away, the mighty dragon had gently scoped her up along with some of the surrounding rubble.

Enclosed in his hand, Saeko had to rely on seeing through Arashi's eyes. It was with a mixture of terror and exhilaration when she saw, and felt, Arashi lift into the sky once more and make his way out to sea, leaving Osaka behind…

The instant Max saw Arashi grab Saeko, he had rushed out to try and save her, heedless of the futility of it. But his shouts and his effort went unheeded as Hikaru Chen's creation flew off into the sky. All Max could do was stare helplessly after him, cursing Arashi's name.

"I knew that walking lightning rod was going to be trouble," he swore. "I knew it! He's a monster, you can't trust a monster! I swear to God that if he hurts Saeko in anyway I'll… I'll…" Max trailed off, unable to come up with a threat dire enough.

"You can't help her now," Glenn said as he put a hand on Max's shoulder. "You know Saeko better than I do and you know she can take care of herself. If anyone can get through to that dragon, it'll be her." Despite Glenn's words, he didn't sound very sure of himself.

"C'mon, we have an alien invasion to stop."

Max dropped to his knees, suddenly feeling very weak. "I… I can't leave her, dad. I've got to do something."

Glenn sighed as he saw Arashi disappear on the horizon. "What can you do, Max? You're good, but one K-41 isn't going to stop that thing. For better or worse we've been given two problems to handle. It's tough, and it's not fair, but we have to pick which one we have the better chance of solving. Right now, I pick Fuji and his plans to stop these aliens. Maybe…"

Glenn paused. He didn't want to fill his son with what was likely false hope, but right now Max needed something to cling to. The idea of never seeing the girl he loved again would tear him apart otherwise.

"Maybe Fuji will be able to help after we meet with him."

Max gritted his teeth as he looked once more at the patch of sky where he had last seen Arashi.

Someday…

Someday there would be no need for monsters. He heaved a sigh as he followed his father back to the K-41.

Fuji was waiting.

_Washington D.C._

The capital of America was in ruins. The first place to be hit was the White House, then the Capital Building, and so forth in that order as the Demions methodically sought to decapitate the leadership of the most powerful nation in the world with lightning quick strikes.

The kaiju they had chosen for such an action was well suited to do the job. Gigan was a biomechanical nightmare. He was vaguely avian in appearance with a metallic beak framed by two wicked looking side pincers. Gigan's blue flesh was replaced in some areas with golden scales patterned after Ghidorah's formidable armor. He had a mohawk of curved horns jutting from his skull and ending at the base of his neck. Three amphibious looking sails protruded from his back to help him take in energy. As soon as the sails ended, Gigan had a single row of small spikes running the length of his tail.

Gigan's eyes had been replaced by a single red mechanical visor capable of seeing in several spectrums. His hands were metallic sickle shaped hammer claws capable of delivering a powerful blow to anything they touched. A buzzsaw was implanted in his belly for close fighting.

Originally created by the Nebula M Spacehunter aliens, when the Demions had wiped out the galactic cockroaches they had taken possession of Gigan in preparation for their eventual invasion of Earth. They studied Gigan when they sent him in their initial attacks a little more than two months ago. While the hybrid was a formidable fighter, Vulpecula had seen room for improvement.

The Demion scientist had noticed that, after all things considered, Gigan was too much of a coward to be an effective fighter. The Spacehunters had programmed a strong survival mechanism into their creation which meant that as soon as the battle turned against him, Gigan would flee. It was also noted that Gigan always preferred to fight hand-to-hand, seemingly forgetting about the laser beam implanted above his eye.

Vulpecula had revamped Gigan's intelligence to account for these deficiencies, making the cyborg much more intelligent in addition to being sadistic. The new Gigan was a force to be reckoned with as a kaiju who knew all of his abilities and wouldn't run when things went bad.

Plus, there had been one or two surprises added to Gigan's arsenal to make him even more of a menace…

The U.S. military had been quick to respond of course, but even their most modern weapons were no match for Gigan. Tanks, masers, jets; the cyborg kaiju either shrugged off their attacks, or simply dodged the more powerful stuff with astounding agility. He chose a wide variety of methods for wiping out the forces arrayed against him. His laser beam was effective at intercepting most anything, but he also seemed to delight in tearing apart the vehicles physically.

A Demion saucer hovered in the sky above all the carnage, observing it all but not interfering as Gigan dispatched buildings and troops, setting both ablaze. If anything did happen to be foolish enough to attack the saucer, however, it was promptly blown apart by the spaceship's powerful lasers. Once it was done defending itself, the saucer would simply revert back to its observer role, apparently unconcerned about anything the humans would throw at it.

The once proud and noble city of Washington D.C. was soon nothing more than a burning wasteland as Gigan moved towards the next city, eradicating anything that got in his way…

_Moscow._

The carnage was no different in Russia's capital and the affects of their military as futile as their American counterparts. As with Washington D.C., the first target to be hit was their major center of government, in this case, the Kremlin, before the monster moved on to hit other targets of importance before he focused on the rest of the city.

This particular kaiju, Orga, was a hulking gray behemoth who had first made an appearance four years ago in the year 2000. He had come in a space crystal similar to the type used by King Ghidorah or Gigan to travel through space. As most kaiju do, Orga had attacked Japan before being driven off by Godzilla. It was during that fight that it was learned that Orga could assimilate the DNA of others into his system.

So, in addition to being a lumbering brute, Orga also possessed Godzilla's healing factor. Hunchbacked, with a small viperish head, and two enormous clawed hands that reached down to the ground, Orga was an odd looking creature. However, his strength and power couldn't be denied, especially the cannon mounted in his right shoulder which hinted at a possible history as a bioweapon like Gigan.

Possessed of a simple mind, Orga, without question, followed the orders sent to him by the Demion saucer observing the carnage.

He was thorough and complete in his destruction, some might even venture that this kaiju was some sort of perfectionist, however the reason for his slow pace was more to the fact that Orga felt no hurry. The attacks of the Russian military were nothing more than a minor annoyance. Anything that was powerful enough to hurt him was healed back without a problem. He saw nothing of interest here, nothing to absorb, so he would continue to destroy until the situation changed…

_London._

Unlike Orga and Gigan, King Ghidorah did not take well to the orders being sent to him by the Demion saucer. Before the main invasion, he had been told to wait by the Demions and he had complied because they had promised him that he would be given the chance to raze the planet. They had been confident that their mind control technology would keep him compliant, but they had grossly underestimated the golden demon.

When Ghidorah had arrived in London, he had immediately started destroying everything in sight. However, the Demions had insisted that he attack certain targets first according to their petty plans. He was a destroyer of worlds! The other two inhabited planets in this system, Venus and Mars, had been destroyed by him and him alone. King Ghidorah did not take orders unless it fit his own agenda, and he wouldn't suffer the 'help' thinking they were better than him.

The final straw had been when the Demion saucer had tried to attack him for not following their orders. Their lasers scorched his scales, but did little else. His gravity bolts, on the other hands, played havoc with the saucer's armor and blew it apart almost instantly as it was hit with a triple blast. The burning remains of the alien craft had fallen onto the buildings of London, setting whole neighborhoods ablaze as the debris touched down.

Ghidorah simply cackled as he added to the carnage, indiscriminate in the targets he chose to destroy. All life on the planet would fall before him in time, it mattered not if they ran. There would be nowhere they could hide…

_Rome._

Not every attack was futile, or rather, the armies of Italy found help in a very unexpected quarter.

The one constant of life is that it can adapt to even the most hostile conditions and thrive. Without such a constant, Godzilla, or any of the other radioactive monsters that had been spawned by man's atomic tests, would never have existed.

Hedorah, the monster that literally lived on pollution, was another excellent example of the tenacity of life. However, in an ironic twist, he was also the very antithesis of life. His body killing anything it touched.

The Italian military was finding it difficult to deal with Hedorah, his very presence was choking the life out of the city and all who lived in it. Bombs, missiles, shells, none of it even seemed to faze the walking sludge pile. Without access to a huge dehydrator, the only thing that was even remotely effectively against Hedorah was napalm but it did almost as much damage to the city as the kaiju did and the small gains it made was not worth it.

However, with little else at their disposal, it was all they had to go on.

That was until a huge cloud of strange yellow spores entered the battlefield. These spores seemed to affect Hedorah in a way that nothing else could, they seemed to actually be feeding on the pollutants in his body.

The troops would have cheered, but it was quickly discovered that the spores ate through any inorganic material. The Demion saucer overhead was also not immune to the spore cloud's effects as the tiny things carved through its armor with little resistance, sending it crashing into the city in a massive fireball.

Quite unexpectedly, Hedorah was forced to flee back into the ocean rather than try to fight off the strange spores.

Meanwhile, the spores continued to eat away at buildings and anything else they attached to that wasn't a living organism. With this strange new twist, the military was forced to retreat until it could figure out exactly what these spores were and how to deal with them…

_Tokyo._

Because it had survived so many kaiju attacks, Tokyo had become a symbol to the Japanese people of their ability to survive and overcome anything. It was the city that wouldn't die.

And it was in flames.

Three mechanical terrors were laying waste to the city with cold-hearted efficiency. Two of the machines were based upon the greatest kaiju the Earth had; Godzilla and King Kong.

Mechagodzilla was not a new sight, as he had terrorized the Earth on two separate occasions in the seventies. However, this was a different Mechagodzilla than what had been seen before. He was sleeker and had a more silvery finish than the last version. Much of his armament had been shifted and upgraded to accompany thicker plates of armor and to make his limbs useful for more than just holding missiles. In addition, his artificial intelligence saw a significant increase since his last activation in the seventies. Mechagodzilla could now think for himself and had little need of guidance aside from being told what targets to destroy. As before he showed an odd pleasure, considering he was supposed to be a soulless machine, in the destruction he caused.

Mecahni-Kong likewise was not a new sight, but his remains had been recovered by Demion agents after Dr. Whu's machine was destroyed. Simeon technicians had then taken the liberty to upgrade him and make him more powerful than ever before. Whereas Mechagodzilla was filled head to toe with weaponry, Mechani-Kong, simply called Mecha-Kong to separate him from Whu's version, was empowered with amazing agility and strength to make him a worthy doppelganger to the real Kong. However, he still possessed the greatest weapon in his arsenal, namely his hypnosis prism.

The last robot was more of a cyborg than a true mechanical, but since most of his body had been replaced by mechanical enhancements, he had been thrown in with the invasion force to level Tokyo. It was Hikaru Chen's earlier creation, the Dorat-Ghidorah, resurrected as Mecha-King Ghidorah. Even though he still had organic components, thanks to the obedience protocols that Chen had programmed into his very DNA, Mecha-King Ghidorah was as unquestioning and soulless as the other two robots.

The three robotic terrors were dropped right into the center of Tokyo before spreading out in three different directions and attacking, destroying everything in their sight. The JSDF was, predictably, near useless as it struggled to fight back against the greatest artificial weapons ever known…

_Africa._

With the most powerful militaries in the world concerned with defending their own, the African forces resisting the insect horde were easily overrun. The soldiers that weren't devoured by the Meganura, were trampled underfoot or cut to pieces by the Kamacuras.

The war machines didn't fare much better, aside from Megaguirus's troubling ability to short out electronics, Kumonga and Megalon wracked up their fair share of kills with their respective abilities.

In order for the insect horde to spread and conquer, the forces were divided in three groups. The first, belonging to Megaguirus, pushed towards Egypt and the Middle East. The second, under Kumonga's command, moved towards Western Africa and all of the tiny nations therein. Megalon was tasked with taking control of everything below the established borders of the insect nation of Central Africa.

The soldiers of the remaining African countries fought bravely, but as one after another fell before the seemingly implacable horde the will to fight seemed to leave the men. The sight of an approaching cloud of Meganura or hearing the shrieks of a division of Kamacuras was enough to make some armies flee in terror.

The humans were not without their fair share of kills, but the ranks of the horde seemed to be endless in number and their apparent kaiju leaders seemed invincible. There was little hope left and the precious few victories against the horde always carried a high price of blood.

With her ability to effortlessly short out machines, Megaguirus's division was moving at an astonishing rate as her forces overran whole armies virtually unopposed…

_Infant Island._

Battra came ashore on the rocky coast of Infant Island full of rage. His howl of challenge echoed across the island as he made his way towards Mothra. On his way, he decimated everything in his sight with his powerful prism beams. There would be nothing left of this island once he was done!

Battra's journey over the small island was a short one. Surprisingly, he did not run across a single islander on his way to Mothra. No doubt, his sister had ordered the island evacuated in anticipation for his coming. It mattered not, he would track down Mothra's followers in due course. The important thing was that Mothra was still on the island.

Indeed, she was waiting for him to come. As Battra approached the village proper, he saw Mothra's caterpillar form waiting calmly. She chirped to him, pleading for him to forsake the madness he was perpetrating.

In response, Battra ruthlessly fired his prism beams at her. The deadly purple beams impacted all around Mothra, sending her flying backwards with a screech. He kept up the assault, eager to finally destroy the greatest threat to his plans after such a long time of being imprisoned by her.

Mothra scampered to the shelter of a rocky outcropping and retaliated with a steady stream of her super-strong silk. The wispy stands didn't seem that dangerous, but Battra knew from experience that they could hold just about any opponent in a high enough quantity. It was how she had beaten him last time.

Feeling a rush of anger at the memory, Battra hurried forward, lowering his head and charging with his horn.

Mothra chirped in surprise and tried to get away, but her body was too slow and unwieldy. Battra's horn impacted with the rock, shattering it effortlessly as he plowed forward and impaled his sister. Blood seeped from Mothra's wound as Battra lifted his head and threw her to the side.

Mothra, ever the valiant one, refused to lay down and die as she resorted to her most final and desperate tactic. Rearing up on her back legs, Mothra's body glowed for a moment before she shot a blast of green energy from her 'belly' region.

The powerful shot impacted against Battra's armored exoskeleton and actually pushed him back a little, but otherwise did no damage. In anger he retaliated with a virtual storm of prism beams as he advanced once more on the goddess of Infant Island.

He only stopped his attack once he had closed the distance between himself and his sister. She was laying sideways on the ground, her body burned and bleeding as she gave one last pathetic chirp to try and sway Battra to her side.

In response, Battra reared up on his hind legs before sending his full weight to crash down on the head of his most hated enemy…

The people of Infant Island had taken to the water at Mothra's command. Escorting them away from the danger was the Shobijin, riding Fairy Mothra. Mothra could have run as well, but she knew that her brother would have pursued her to the ends of the Earth to get his revenge. It was better, in her opinion, to fight him now; away from a populated area, than to risk having him kill her while she was helpless in her cocoon. At least in her larval form she had a chance of beating him.

It was one of the few decisions that the Shobijin had disagreed with her about; vehemently in fact. However, Mothra had been adamant and in the end her priestesses had had no choice but to follow her mandate.

The sounds of her battle with Battra carried over the water to reach the ears of the islanders, but for the Shobijin the battle was much more personal. Connected as they were with Mothra, they could feel her life energy slowly drain away as Battra ruthlessly attacked her.

When the battle came to a sickening close, the Shobijin screamed as one as Mothra's lifeforce was extinguished before their minds fell into darkness…


	11. Hope

**Chapter Nine: **Hope

_Kobe, Japan._

"Good to see ya, Fuj," Glenn said with a smile as he shook the other man's hand. "I was a little worried that the aliens might have gotten to you."

"You should know me better than that," Fuji said in perfect English. "It takes more than an invasion to stop us." He looked over at Max. "I'm glad you're here too, Max."

Max smiled back and bowed half-heartedly, a little put-off by how cheerful his dad and Fuji seemed to be. One could almost forget that there were aliens threatening to wipe out all life on Earth, or that there were kaiju on the loose everywhere.

Or that one of them had kidnapped his girlfriend…

Doubtless there had to be a good reason. Akira Fuji was considered one of Japan's most influential citizens. In addition to Max's father, Fuji had been one of the heroes who had pushed back the Xian invasion. Fuji was also a brilliant scientist who had devised the A-cycle light ray which had been instrumental in defeating the Xian's technology. Like Glenn, when M-Watch was formed, Fuji had come onboard as an advisor; lending his expertise to the Japanese division.

Even after Glenn had left for America, the two friends had stayed in contact. Beyond that, Max didn't know very much. He had met Fuji a couple of times as a kid when the Japanese man had come over to visit, but the trips were so infrequent that Max had never really gotten to know Fuji.

There were in an underground bunker deep below the corporate headquarters for Takarada Industries, the company that Fuji had started along with his brother-in-law, Tetsuo Kubo. Max had no idea that the bunker even existed and for good reason apparently. According to his father on the way over, M-Watch had built the place in secret to serve as a command center in case aliens ever invaded again. To have one spot so secret that no alien would ever know about it. It was an expansive facility, and an impressive technological achievement.

Currently they were in a small room filled with monitors that displayed events from around the world, most of them were currently focused on the rampaging kaiju although apparently Fuji's sources didn't know where Arashi had gone off to as Max couldn't spot a screen with the blue dragon on it. On the far side of the room, on the opposite end of the door, was one huge screen that displayed a world map with icons to represent destroyed cities, alien saucers, and kaiju locations.

Several notable capitals were already destroyed and the monsters were spreading to wipe out the surrounding area. Most of Africa was colored a deep red to indicate how much territory the insect horde had claimed.

Included almost as an afterthought was a round table in the center of the room. Most of the seats were filled with Japanese dignitaries that Max didn't recognize, although he could spot the Prime Minister Machiko Tsuge and some of her cabinet. Max and his father took a seat as Fuji walked up to stand next to the main screen.

"We'll begin momentarily," he explained. "The last of our guests should be here in a minute or two."

Max looked over at his father to see if he knew what Fuji was talking about, but Glenn just shrugged, apparently as in the dark as Max was.

After a little waiting, three apparently normal Japanese people walked into the room. Two were men, both wearing suits. One of the men sported dark sunglasses while the other fancied a truly awful goatee. The last was a woman, who wore casual clothing and was quite lovely, but her impassive face sucked out all of the warmth.

"Everyone," Fuji said as he addressed the room. "Allow me to introduce our allies: the Xian Controller, Lord Sudag of the Simeons, and Queen Kyoko of the Kilaaks."

The room immediately broke into startled conversation, summed up nicely by Glenn's outraged remark. "What's the matter with you, Fuji? They're the enemy! You've given everything away!"

"They _were_ the enemy," Fuji corrected sternly. "But they're willing to help us drive off the Demions. Let's be realistic about this Glenn, even with the K-41's, we're going to need all the help we can get."

"After what they did to Namikawa!" Glenn protested angrily as he stood from his chair. "No way I'm going to trust any one of those stinkin' rats!"

"Astronaut Glenn," the Controller addressed him calmly, unfazed by the anger directed at him. "We were forced to invade Earth. The Demions threatened to destroy us unless we subjugated your world. To prevent that, our computers told us that any and all action would be deemed necessary to insure our survival. With that reasoning, the defective unit known as Namikawa had to be destroyed otherwise our plan could have become unraveled and our existence terminated by the Demions."

"Defective unit…" Glenn snarled, bunching his hands into fists. "You murdered her in cold blood! You think you're so goddamned superior with your computers… you think that love is a virus…" Glenn's words became unintelligible as he struggled to come up with an insult that was suitably scathing.

Max just stared at his dad in shock. He had never seen him so angry. Max knew of his father's hatred for aliens; stemming from the death of Namikawa, but only the bare bones of the story. It was just one of those things that they never talked about.

"You think I'm happy working with these people?" Sudag spoke up as he stroked his goatee. "The Xians are emotionless freaks and the Kilaaks are a race of bitc-"

"Enough!" Fuji demanded, cutting off the Simeon, before looking at Glenn pointedly. "All of you. The Demions are a threat to everyone and as long as we have a common enemy, fighting amongst ourselves is pointless. Now, let's sit down and get this meeting to order."

The aliens took a seat, and Glenn reluctantly sat down, but he did his best to keep an eye on the new arrivals.

Fuji nodded. "Now, as you all know, the Demions have started their attempted annihilation of all life on Earth. Before we get into the actual battle plan, I think it would help if you knew exactly what it is we're dealing with here." Fuji looked to the Xian. "Controller, if you would..."

The Controller nodded and gestured to the big screen. The world view changed to show several horned aliens resembling the frightening visage of Centaurus. "This is the Demion race. Their bodies and coloration vary in different ways, but they are unified in a singular goal of ruling the galaxy. Those that don't submit to them are summarily destroyed. There is no middle ground with this race."

"All Demions posses an ability to warp reality and transport themselves over vast distances. A truly skilled Demion can even transport objects. With this kind of ability, only a few defenses are effective in keeping them away. Your so-called secure installations here on Earth could never hope to keep a Demion spy out."

"In addition to this, a few types of Demion can manipulate fire and use it in a variety of ways. Regardless of their physical differences, all Demions are born warriors and can endure a great deal of damage to their bodies before they expire."

"So, they really are demons," Max blurted out.

"Correct," the Controller confirmed. "This race has been the basis for all kinds of tales involving malevolent beings. Earth is no exception."

"Wait a minute," Glenn interrupted. "You're saying that these guys have been here before?"

If the Controller was annoyed at the rhetorical question, he didn't show it. "Long ago in your planet's distant past, the Demions had tried to invade Earth and steal its advanced technology. After a long struggle, they were soundly defeated by the three nations of Atlantis, Seatopia, and Mu. Their defeat was so complete that they didn't try to attack the Earth again for thousands of years."

"When it was learned that Atlantis was destroyed, and Mu and Seatopia were mere shells of their former selves, they renewed the offensive against your planet. However, to test how powerful you were, and to avoid another crushing defeat, they sent other alien races to invade for them." The Controller was silent for a moment. "We, the Xians, were forced to come up with a plan to subjugate you as well as a story to cover up any Demion involvement. The same is true for the Kilaaks, the Simeons, and the Nebula M Spacehunters."

"Where are the Spacehunters?" Prime Minister Tsuge asked. "Did they not want to be part of this alliance?"

"Eradicated," the Controller told her flatly. "Earth was not the Spacehunter's only failure. The Demions do not tolerate failure. After one loss too many, the Demions decided that the Spacehunters were no longer fit to live. They took control of anything the Spacehunters had that might be valuable to them and destroyed the rest."

With the jerky arm movement that was typical Xian, the Controller placed a hand on his chest. "When we, the Xians, failed to take over Earth, the Demions destroyed our world ship, Planet X. Similar tragedies befell the other races that were sent and likewise repulsed by you Earthlings."

"That explains why I never found Planet X again when I was sent there as an ambassador," Glenn said with a nod. "Not that I see it as any great loss. Maybe the Demions were doing the galaxy a favor."

"Glenn…" Fuji started with a warning glance. "At least wait until after the meeting to hurl insults."

Glenn waved him off, but kept his peace.

"Wouldn't the fact that Earth kept driving off invasions be an indication that we were still strong?" Max asked. "I mean, why have the Demions decided to take a personal hand in the matter now? Why not send another race to attack us?"

The Controller frowned. "There was a recent change in leadership. An ambitious general by the name of Centaurus overthrew the last ruler and assumed control. From what we can piece together, he studied the past invasions and surmised that it was in fact Godzilla that was the key to your victories. If Godzilla and the other kaiju who protect this planet were taken out of the picture somehow, the Human race would never be able to stand against his forces."

Fuji nodded. "Centaurus has been very careful in his preliminary work, but he hasn't been completely invisible. We've seen several signs pointing to a coming invasion, although admittedly nothing this bad. Every world leader has secretly been on high alert. However, we don't know if they've all escaped harm or not. We've heard from the Americans and the British that they were able to evacuate, but no word from Italy or Russia yet."

"Right now we stand poised to launch a worldwide offensive against the Demions with K-41's. They are about the only weapon that we think will have any effect against their craft. Militaries around the world have proven the hard way that conventional weapons won't do the trick. Unfortunately, with our current numbers, we'll only be able to launch guerilla strikes. This where our new allies will come in handy."

Taking his cue, Sudag spoke up as the view on the main screen changed to a live view of Tokyo being destroyed by the mechanical monsters. "We've combined a mixed fleet of saucers that will come to your aid when you launch your offensive. However, we've added another surprise." The screen centered on Mechagodzilla. "At our command, Mechagodzilla will turn against the Demions and their monsters."

"Why not all of the robots?" Glenn demanded.

The Simeon scowled at Glenn. "It wouldn't matter, Human. We Simeons built all three of those robots, but we only had time to devote to the A.I. of one; namely Mechagodzilla. We could order all three to rebel, but the Demions will simply counter the order and get them back under their control. The intelligence guiding Mecha-Kong is only complex enough to destroy. Mecha-King Ghidorah is not much different, despite it's organic components. However, since out last attack failed we've spent considerable time upgrading Mechagodzilla's intelligence in anticipation of invading again. Our greatest creation will be able to override the Demion's commands and carry-out his new orders without interference."

"And you think Mechagodzilla will be able to stand against the other two without a problem?" the Prime Minister asked grimly.

Sudag grinned arrogantly. "Without question. This latest version of Mechagodzilla incorporates all of the advances the first two had as well as some new technology. He is far more powerful than Mecha-Kong or Mecha-King Ghidorah."

"Despite the confidence of my Simeon comrade, even with the added fleet and Mechagodzilla, the odds still aren't on our side," Fuji told them as the view on the main screen switched to Monster Island. "It was learned just before Centaurus made his announcement that the rest of the kaiju on Monster Island are being held captive through mind control. This is the reason they haven't come to aid us yet."

"The Demions have three saucers above the island and are transmitting a much more powerful version of our own mind-control ray," Kyoko said, finally speaking up. "We've been studying their improvements and we believe we can block the signal, but only for a short time. The problem is it'll take a lot of power to generate a signal powerful enough disrupt the rays so we won't be able to hold it for long. You'll need to destroy the three saucers in less than half an hour otherwise they'll simply retake control of the kaiju."

"We'll be using a modified version of my A-cycle light ray," Fuji said. "A special submarine has already been outfitted with the weapon, but we'll need the K-41's for the actual attack."

A map appeared of Monster Island showing the positions of the three saucers. "A group of nine K-41's will launch and attack the saucers, three to a ship. I'm told that these particular Demion saucers were made to specifically broadcast the mind-control ray, so when we do destroy them, it should be awhile before they can send anything else to try and take control of the monsters. The big problem will be if the Demions send any other saucers as reinforcements. Obviously this is designed to be a quick strike mission so we can't afford any prolonged fighting."

"What about Saeko?" Max suddenly found himself asking. "We can't leave her with Arashi!"

"The life of one girl is not significant," the Controller told him coldly. "There are greater matters to consider."

Glenn was quick to speak up in his son's defense. "Now hold on a minute! Life might be cheap where you come from, but that's not how we do things here on Earth! We're not going to abandon Saeko."

Fuji looked at his friend helplessly. "Our resources are stretched thin as it is, Glenn. I don't agree with the Controller, but we need everybody we can get for our counterattack, that includes you and Max. I don't see how we can mount a rescue operation against something like Arashi at the same time."

Max stood up from his chair hotly. "Then you're doing it without me! I'm not going to leave her in the hands of that monster!"

Glenn stood to join his son. "You better put me on that list too, Fuj. If there's a chance she can be rescued, we've got to take it."

Fuji seemed about ready to argue the point some more, but Sudag saved him the trouble. "Not to interrupt this entertaining drama, but I have a solution that should take care of all this: we'll search for her in my saucer. Our craft are designed with stealth in mind and they can go deep underwater; we'll be able to evade detection by the Demions and find your little girl and her monster."

Glenn was quick to refuse. "Forget it, ape. We don't need your kind of help."

"Dad, no, we do need them," Max disagreed. "I know how you feel, but this is for Saeko."

"Max is right, Glenn," Fuji chimed in candidly. "Without help from the Simeons, all I can offer you is a rowboat."

Glenn held up his hands in defeat. "Alright, if you're all going to gang up on me, I guess you've made your point. I don't like it, but if it means we get Saeko back, then I I'll have to live with it." He glared at the Simeon. "I'll be watching you, so don't think about trying something funny!"

"Perish the thought," Sudag chuckled in amusement.

Fuji relaxed a little now that Glenn and Max seemed placated. "Right, now that that's settled. I want you two to promise me that if you can't find Saeko within six hours that you get back here to help with the attack. You're both damn fine pilots and the mission is going to suffer without you. It should take us that long to make the final preparations."

Glenn looked to his son who hesitated before nodding reluctantly. "Six hours, Fuji," Max agreed. "I understand. I appreciate it."

Fuji nodded back before getting up from his seat and proudly looking over everyone assembled in the room. "Remember this meeting, people. We've weathered the storm and taken the worst Centaurus can throw at us. He thinks he's crushed us, but he couldn't be further from the truth. Today marks the turning point. Now it's our turn to take back what's ours."

**The End of Book One**


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